Monthly Archives: May 2017

AI everywhere – TechCrunch

Posted: May 6, 2017 at 3:38 am

I asked Huang to compare the GTC of eight years ago to the GTC of today, given how much of Nvidias focus has changed.

We invented a computing model called GPU accelerated computing and we introduced it almost slightly over 10 years ago, Huang said, noting that while AI is only recently dominating tech news headlines, the company was working on the foundation long before that. And so we started evangelizing all over the world. GTC is our developers conference for that. The first year, with just a few hundred people, we were mostly focused in two areas: They were focused in computer graphics, of course, and physics simulation, whether its finite element analysis or fluid simulations or molecular dynamics. Its basically Newtonian physics.

A lot can change in a decade, however, and Huang points to a few things that have changed in the past 10years that have shifted the landscape in which Nvidia operates.

The first thing is that Moores Law has really slowed, he said. So as a result GPU-accelerated computing gave us life after Moores Law, and it extended the capability of computing so that these applications that desperately need more computing can continue to advance. Meanwhile, the reach of GPUs hasgone far and wide, and its much more than computer graphics today. Weve reached out into all fields of course computer graphics, virtual reality, augmented reality to all kinds of interesting and challenging physics simulations.

But it doesnt end there. Nvidias tech now resides in many of the worlds most powerful supercomputers, and the applications include fields that were once considered beyond the realm of modern computing capabilities. However,the train that Nvidia has been riding to great success recently, AI, was a later development still.

"AI is just the modern way of doing software."

Almost every supercomputer in the world today has some form of acceleration, much of it from Nvidia, Huang told me. And then there was quantum mechanics. The field of quantum chemistry is going quite well and theres a great deal of research in quantum chemistry, in quantum mechanics. And then several years ago I would say about five years ago we saw an emergence of a new field in computer science called deep learning. And deep learning, combined with the rich amount of data thats available, and the processing capability came together to become what people call the Big Bang of modern AI.

This was a landscape shift that moved Nvidia from the periphery. Now, Nvidias graphics hardware occupies a more pivotal role, according to Huang and the companys long list of high-profile partners, including Microsoft, Facebook and others, bears him out.

GPUs really have become the center of the AI universe, though some alternatives like FPGAs are starting to appear, as well. At GTC, Nvidia has had many industry-leading partners onstage and off, and this year will be no exception: Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Amazon will all be present. Its also a hub for researchers, and representatives fromthe University of Toronto, Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Tsinghua University, the Max Plank Institutes and many more will also be in attendance.

GTC, in other words, has evolved into arguably the biggest developer event focused on artificial intelligence in the world. Nowhere else can you find most of the major tech companies in the world, along with academic and research organizations under one roof. And Nvidia is also focusing on bringing a third group more into the mix: startups.

Nvidia has an accelerator program called Inception that Huang says is its AI platform for startups. About 2,000 startups participate,getting support from Nvidia in one form or another, includingfinancing, platform access, exposure to experts and more.

Huang also notes that GTC is an event for different industry partners, including GlaxoSmithKline, Procter &Gamble and GE Healthcare. Some of these industry-side partners would previously have been out of place even at very general computing events. Thats because, unlike with the onset of smartphones, AI isnt just changing how you present computing products to a user, but also what areas actually represent opportunities for computing innovation, according to Huang.

AI is eating software, Huang continued. The way to think about it is thatAI is just the modern way of doing software. In the future, were not going to see software that is not going to continue to learn over time, and be able to perceive and reason, and plan actions and that continues to improve as we use it. These machine-learning approaches, these artificial intelligence-based approaches, will define how software is developed in the future. Just about every startup company does software these days,and even non-startup companies do their own software. Similarly, every startup in the future will have AI.

Nor will this be limited to cloud-based intelligence, resident in powerful, gigantic data centers. Huang notes that were now able to apply computing to things where before it made no sense to do so, including to air conditioners and other relatively dumb objects.

Youve got cars, youve got drones, youve got microphones; in the future, almost every electronic device will have some form of deep learning inferencing within it.We call that AI at the edge, he said. And eventually therell be a trillion devices out there: Vending machines; every microphone; every camera; every house will have deep learning capability. And some of it needs a lot of performance; some of it doesnt need a lot of performance. Some of it needs a lot of flexibility because it continues to evolve and get smarter. Some of it doesnt have to get smarter.And well have custom solutions for it all.

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AI everywhere - TechCrunch

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Do we really need all these vitamins, minerals and other … – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Posted: at 3:36 am

The problem with nutritional science is it isn't really a science. It's a mixture of science with tradition, fads and prejudices -- often it's hard to see which is which.

And human beings are notoriously hard to study. We vary by gender, race, genetics, cultural backgrounds and the physical environments in which we live, work and play.

So what should we eat, and avoid, for proper nutrition? Should we take vitamins and other dietary supplements and if yes, what kinds?

Judging by statistics, Americans have already given their answers. About 71 percent of us take dietary supplements, according to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association for the supplements industry.

Multivitamins are the most common form, with 75 percent of supplement users taking them. Vitamin D comes in second at 37 percent, followed closely by vitamin C at 34 percent and calcium at 29 percent.

Sales of all vitamin- and mineral-containing supplements in the U.S. totaled $14.3 billion in 2014, according to the National Institutes of Healths Office of Dietary Supplements. Sales of all dietary supplements reached $36.7 billion in that same year, the most recent period available for finalized data.

But resoundingly, nutritional experts said you should start by focusing on food. Know which foods provide which of your bodys nutritional needs, and then build your balanced meals with those items. Even the nutritional supplements industry says that.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition says supplements should be secondary to adopting an eating pattern that includes foods with good nutritional profiles.

We always look at diet first, said council spokesman Douglas Duffy MacKay. Supplements are there to fill gaps. Diet is the target, but we have to live in the real world.

To many nutritionists, the issue is not really nutrients and their actual numbers, but your diet and the foods you take from a variety of different groups, said Paul Thomas, a scientific consultant for the NIHs Office of Dietary Supplements. The numbers on the whole tend to work out. Youll be in pretty good stead if you follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Every five years, the federal Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion issues its Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The most recent set dates back to 2015.

The guidelines advocate what are called healthy eating patterns, sounding the familiar refrain of eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and dairy, such as fat-free or low-fat milk, and reducing sodium intake.

The 2015 report notably differs from its 2010 predecessor in dropping the limit on consuming cholesterol. Yet cholesterol, along with fat and sodium, is still treated with suspicion. The guidelines on those substances arent firmly supported by accumulating scientific evidence.

*Fat, demonized for decades as causing heart disease and obesity, is now known to be much more benign. Evidence indicates heart disease is an inflammatory condition with little connection to fat. And some fats are actually good for your heart.

Dr. Eric Topol, a Scripps Health geneticist-cardiologist in La Jolla, has called the emphasis on restricting fat an example of eminence-based medicine, in which the eminence of the proponent outweighs the evidence.

*Dietary cholesterol, likewise long condemned as a heart-killer, has little to do with blood cholesterol levels. The body makes cholesterol as needed. Efforts to find a link between cholesterol consumption and heart disease have yielded inconclusive results, meaning the federal dietary guidelines lack clear scientific support.

*Sodium intake has little to do with blood-pressure levels a finding repeatedly documented in studies, including a new one that followed 2,600 people for more than 16 years. Sodium mainly enters our food through salt. Roughly 25 percent of Americans are salt-sensitive and need to watch their intake. For the rest, its not a critical issue.

The current dietary guidelines also point out vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the diet of many Americans.

These include potassium, dietary fiber, choline, magnesium, calcium and vitamins A, D, E and C, they said. Iron also is under-consumed by adolescent girls and women ages 19 to 50 years.

Nutrition cant be reduced to a list of nutrients and numbers, Thomas said. Thats because the science isnt complete, he explained, and because humans dont consume nutrients in isolation.

Food is really complicated, Thomas said. It not only contains nutrients for which we have recommended allowances, it contains a whole variety of other things that seem to be important to health that we cant quite quantify yet. By not eating those foods and thinking you can make up the nutrient deficit by taking individual (supplements) or combinations of them, you are depriving yourself of these other things that can potentially affect your health.

Still, for people who dont fully follow the federal dietary guidelines, Thomas said the next-best thing is to add well-targeted supplements in consultation with a doctor or dietitian.

A supplement, as the name implies, is any substance taken to augment a persons diet. These can be necessary vitamins or minerals, or optional substances thought to support or improve health.

Along with the standard vitamin and mineral supplements, companies offer what are called specialty supplements, including coenzyme Q10 to supply energy and glucosamine and chondroitin for joint function, he said.

Curcumin is another popular supplement in the specialty category, MacKay said. This component of the curry spice turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties. Research indicates it may help prevent Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular disease.

Thomas considered supplements after developing osteoarthritis, a common aging-related condition, a number of years ago. I still wanted to run and play singles tennis and all, he recalled.

After reviewing the scientific evidence and talking with his physician, Thomas took glucosamine and chondroitin. The studies were conflicting as to their effectiveness, but the supplements also had a good safety profile. So Thomas decided it was worth a try.

In my case it helped. It helped wonderfully, Thomas said. He began sensing effectiveness within a few weeks, without any side effects, and the benefits lasted about five years.

But I was aware that I was experimenting, that I was going beyond the bounds of any professional, generally accepted recommendation for its use, he said. And in my case, it helped. There have been other cases where it hasnt been helpful.

Each supplement has its own characteristic benefits and potential risks, Thomas said. Experts said if the benefits dont show up after youve given the supplement a good try, then discontinue it.

Because it can be difficult to track down the cause or causes of your bodys negative reactions to something, Thomas recommends adding only one supplement at a time and watching how you react to it.

He also urges consumers to examine the reputation and reliability of a supplement maker, to ensure theyre getting the actual supplement and no dangerous byproducts or even contaminants.

The nutritional supplements industry and the nutrient recommendations we have today began in the early 1940s in the shadow of World War II, Thomas said.

Recommended dietary allowances of vitamins and minerals were established through the National Academy of Sciences. Around the same time, sales began of multivitamin/mineral supplements, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements.

Many potential recruits were in poor nutritional status, Thomas said. That led to a project to better understand nutritional needs and set standards to help the military and civilian populations get adequate amounts of essential nutrients, including protein and carbohydrates.

Over the years, for subsequent iterations, the number of nutrients has expanded as our understanding of their role and potential numerical requirements were better understood, Thomas said.

The governments last update of recommended dietary allowances took place in 1989.

I was working at the National Academy of Sciences at that point, with the Food and Nutrition Board, Thomas said.

The board established what it calls Dietary Reference Intakes, intended to define consumption of vitamins and minerals by healthy people. These include maximum levels of safe consumption of each nutrient.

The intake thresholds dont apply to people suffering from various diseases, because they likely have different nutritional needs.

For those worried theyre falling a little short of the allowances, Thomas said isnt necessarily a problem. The recommendations are conservative, estimated to cover 97.5 percent of the U.S. population, he said.

So falling just short of the recommendation for a vitamin or mineral doesnt necessarily mean you personally are deficient.

Supplements not on the official list can be sold as food products, not drugs, under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. These items cant legally be sold to treat diseases, but can be marketed as supporting various aspects of health. The products include biological molecules such as coenzyme Q10, creatine, glucosamine, omega-3 fatty acids, gingko, kava, milk thistle and many more.

For a comprehensive list of supplements, go to j.mp/supplementdiet.

Of all supplements, vitamin D, is perhaps the most controversial. Its necessary for health, but the medical community is sharply divided on how much is needed for the best health.

In theory, most people can get all the vitamin D they need by exposing most of the top half of their body to the sun for 10 to 15 minutes a day. But those who live in higher latitudes or dont expose themselves to the sun for reasons such as fear of skin cancer cant rely on that source. The only other sources are foods, mostly from animals, and supplements.

Top vitamin D experts like Cedric Garland, a UC San Diego epidemiologist, said vitamin D deficiency is common in society. They said the amounts recommended by the federal government are enough to prevent obvious problems such as rickets, but that studies of disease patterns show a striking correlation with lack of vitamin D and higher latitudes.

Rates of the diseases in question drop as you get closer to the equator. The geographic pattern produces a map that researchers call the Vitamin D smile.

That view is highly debated. Some researchers have said proponents of the vitamin D theory have mixed up cause and effect. In other words, lower vitamin D levels could be the result of certain diseases, not their cause.

On Monday, vitamin D supplementation advocates got an endorsement from a review article published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. That article said nearly 1 billion people worldwide may have insufficient or deficient levels of vitamin D due to disease or lack of exposure to the sun.

Garland said the literature on relationships between diseases and a lack of vitamin D is extensive, along with the existence of widespread deficiencies.

Examples are easy to find. From 2016 to the present studies have reported:

* More than half of college football athletes in the NFL Combine have inadequate levels of vitamin D.

* Increasing nursing mothers' vitamin D levels may benefit babies

* In a study performed in mice, giving vitamin D to pregnant mice prevented signs of autism in their offspring.

To get the full benefits of vitamin D, blood measurements should show at least 32 nanograms per milliliter, Garland said.

Theres a threshold for the non-skeletal effects, Garland said. The older standard of 20 nanograms per milliliter would prevent rickets and some perhaps some heart disease, he said.

But we have the potential to reduce cancer, and maybe multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, he said.

Distinguishing between cause and effect has been demonstrated in randomized controlled trials of Vitamin D supplementation, Garland said. For example, a 2007 randomized controlled study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found increasing calcium and vitamin D levels substantially reduced the risk of cancer in more than 1,100 postmenopausal women.

Quality counts

Focusing on food is good, but where it comes from and how it is grown makes a difference, said Kelli Gray-Meisner, a registered dietitian at UC San Diego.

For example, chickens exposed to sun are going to have more vitamin D, Gray-Meisner said.

We mainly get vitamin D from animal sources, she said. Mushrooms are the main exception, and its in a less bioavailable form, vitamin D2. The preferred form is vitamin D3, which is already activated.

Even with those precautions, Gray-Meisner said most people probably should take some supplement, to ensure theyre adequately protected. this includes fish oil with omega-3 fatty acids. Most people have a diet that gives them too much omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause harmful inflammation, she said.

Because of the line of work that Im in, I dont make blanket statements, because I look at people one at at time, she said. But in general, most people could benefit from a multivitamin based on their age and gender several days a week, because we need different things at different times in our lives.

The other consideration is the state of the food, she said.

Even if somebody had a perfect diet in my eyes, our soil and the quality of our plants, which our animals eat, has been degraded over the years, she said. The amount of nutrition that was in an apple 50 years ago is very different from whats in an apple today.

The best plant foods come from areas where the nutritional value of the soil has been conserved through good management, she said.

In general, organically raised produce doesnt strip the soil of nutrients because of the techniques used, Gray-Meisner said.

And for animal products, their nutritional value is based on the quality of the plants they eat. That means grass-fed beef will have a much better nutritional profile than beef raised on artificial feeds.

It has a lot more vitamin A and vitamin D, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is 1 to 1. It goes back to diet; the diet of the animal, and the diet of the plant that theyre eating, which is what they get from the soil.

To get the most nutritional value, Gray-Meisner suggests stopping by your local farmers market.

As soon as food is picked or cut, it starts to lose nutrients. The sooner you can get the produce from the ground and into your mouth, the better off youre going to be.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020

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Do we really need all these vitamins, minerals and other ... - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Flobots carry protest from the screen to the streets on ‘Noenemies … – Digital Trends

Posted: at 3:35 am

The stakes feel so much higher when youre talking about life and death issues like police violence, war, or even just healthcare.

How do modern-day protest artisans get their music heard above the din of partisan rhetoric without appearing overly preachy?

In the case of the Denver-based alt-hip-hop trio known as Flobots, the key was to start at the grassroots level, and then see their message of active participation get disseminated organically. Thats exactly how they planted the seed for the past two-plus years, working with local artists while preparing the music for their multitiered, Kickstarter-funded new album Noenemies, out in numerous formats today via their own label.

We actually spent a lot of time immersed in building community power through collective singing, Flobots emcee Jonny 5 told Digital Trends. The focus wasnt on performance; it was to get groups of people to claim their own power through singing together.

Flobots Noenemies(2017)

To that end, gospel singers like Spirit of Grace lent their heavenly harmonies to numerous backing vocals and created standalone interludes that appear between various tracks on Noenemies. The result is a bouillabaisse blend of hip-hop, alt-rock, and even jazz, ranging from the built-up drama of Blood in the River to the war machine fallout of Quarantine. In fact, Noenemies is the perfect bookend to Flobots breakthrough 2007 megahit, Handlebars (I can keep rhythm with no metronome I can lead the nation with a microphone).

The album is designed to speak to different emotional moments within the lives of people trying to engage in social movements, Jonny 5 continued. We want those moments to shine through lightly and fully each time theyre happening, so we knew we were going to approach this album a little bit differently. It felt like we were ready to focus more on the emotional arc of the story being told.

Digital Trends got in touch with Jonny 5 (real name: Jamie Laurie) at his homebase in Denver to discuss the balance of the Noenemies music-with-message palette, how to capture the spirit of the zeitgeist before it even happens, and how to centralize a common message through shared sounds.

Digital Trends: One song that encapsulates the albums underlying core ideals for me is near the front of the record Blood in the River. It also covers all the bases sonically, with the acoustic guitar and the choral stuff in the front half, and then that aggressive guitar jam towards the end.

Jonny 5: That song was born out of the songwriting genius of Mackenzie Gault, who was one of our original members and is still a part of this album and its songs in various ways on the one hand, were yelling at each other and saying, How can you be on the other side of this issue? How can you be behaving as an enemy? The stakes feel so much higher than ever when youre talking about life and death issues, whether its police violence, war, or even just healthcare. You just want to scream at people on the other side: How dare you be on the other side?!?

There are so many rich elements to these songs, whether its the percussion or the intent and flow of the vocals. How do you make sure all of those things come across when youre dealing with such layered mixes?

We had to be very deliberate with how far to go with it. There are some obvious places for having big custom group vocals, or just building a chant and response into every song. If it was just me, I might have always gone there. (chuckles) But luckily my bandmate Brer Rabbit, Steve [Brackett, Flobots other emcee], has a real genius for big-picture vision, as does Gabe [Gabriel Otto], our producer. The two of them are very careful to not go to the obvious places.

The album ended up being a lot of subtraction. We recorded horn and string parts, and gospel choir parts for probably 75 percent of the songs. Then it was just a matter of saying, OK, what stays, and what goes? Theres a lot on the cutting room floor because we wanted it to be only what was needed in each place.

I can see some tracks being too dense for their own good.

Even with Blood in the River, towards the end we had to pull out some of its layers. There were a lot of beautiful ideas, but you couldnt have them all at once. Even as it is, its a pretty heavy song. We wanted it to be heavy, but we didnt want it to be overwhelming.

Did you look to other protest music or artists of the past or present as to whom you wanted to align with either philosophically or sonically?

It was different for each song. Actually, one of the records our producer looked to was Porgy and Bess [George Gershwins 1935 opera] just the way the story could be told through the music and the motifs between the songs.

Interesting. And then we get to Carousel, where I feel like youre in that intense, Bob Mould vocal zone. That one pulls me into an 80s, Reagan-era protest vibe.

You bring up the Reagan era, and that song was very much inspired by [Nenas 1983 hit] 99 Luftballoons, a song that just feels like a pop song. But when you listen closely, you realize its deeper than that.

If music is our tool, then we need to be celebrating the human voice.

There wasnt only one place that we looked to, because the protest aspect isnt really something thats new for us. The traditions that were always on our mind for this was the Civil Rights Movement and the Southern Freedom Movement different movements that have had songs front and center as part of the culture they were building as tools for the movement And if music is indeed our tool, then we also need to be celebrating the human voice. Not just conceptually, but literally, we have to invite people to sing along.

So it took us about two years to do that, and it overlapped with the album process. For a while, it was all we were focusing on. And then we wanted to make sure the human voice was present in a variety of ways on the album, in ways that would feel new and fresh.

You dont necessarily have to listen to Noenemies in its exact running order, but are there any albums you consider to be perfectly sequenced?

Hmm. Whats interesting is, when an album is really well-sequenced, you almost dont notice it. Im thinking of OutKast, ATLiens (1996). I would always listen to that album straight through. I had it on cassette, and it never even occurred to me that you would skip around. There was no need.

As for our own sequencing, the decision to put Failure Games first was a bold one on our part, because we had to think, Really? Is that how we want to start this thing out? It felt like it actually drew the listener in because it was disconcerting, provoked some questions, and was out boldest and strangest song sonically.

But by putting it first, it enhanced the symmetry of the album. It used to be in the middle of the album in some of our sequences, but we felt this was the bizarre sculpture you present to people in the beginning so you go, Well, what do you think this is?

The other thing is, we completed the album before the election. We knew the songs reflected the emotions of a movement, and one of those emotions is failure. But we didnt know the emotion of failure would feel so desperate by the time the album came out thats the interesting thing about creating any piece of art that it takes time to release you dont know what the zeitgeist will be when you release something, but you can prepare for it. Some things will be different, but a lot of things will be the same, and some things will line up in ways you didnt expect.

A call-to-action song like Rattle the Cage maybe has even more resonance because of the election result.

That song in some ways builds off of Carousel, in the weird digital landscape we live in. We compartmentalize things in a hall of mirrors where we see distortions of one another through social media filters that demonize one another and make each other into enemies.

Carousel has that late at night, looking on your cell phone feel to it. Theres an illusion that your cell phone contains a window into not feeling lonely, which everyone can relate to. Rattle the Cage is the more grotesque side of that reality, where youre so angry with one another because youre convinced the other person is the enemy and thats just seriously bizarre. That song is really about fear, and being afraid of admitting were afraid. And that can come back and haunt us in one way or another.

Did we all somehow get too complacent in terms of how we deal with each other from a physical distance in the modern digital age?

You dont know what the zeitgeist will be when you release something, but some things will line up in ways you didnt expect.

Theres a laziness in digital culture, and a lack of community. We dont have it, so were finding it in superficial places. And the most superficial is being on the internet, where you can feel quite righteous if you cast blame at people who have violated the bubble of your particular norms. And there are people who are marketing that feeling of righteousness to us.

Whats actually harder is to be in a community in a sustained way with a variety of people with a variety of views, and wrestle with them together in a way that makes everyone stronger.

Music used to be the main thing that brought people together on the national level to have a collective conversation, but we dont all access the same jukebox anymore.

Its the downside of compartmentalization, right? When we only had a few television channels, we had just a few conversations available every night, and you kind of knew where everybody was. The fact that media now has all these ways to cater to us individually has all these upsides. Its exciting that you can find your niche and really delve in and be a part of a community of people who share your values, but if we never have one common conversation, then weve really lost something.

Were all seeing the same world, but were given such drastically different, highly specialized framings of that world. It makes it easier to be on the opposite side of a conversation with somebody you just met instead of having that common ground.

Sad but true. Can albums like Noenemies help centralize that conversation? Was that your goal?

I hope so, yeah. We want everyone to recognize themselves on the album. There are songs about that feeling of loneliness we talked about earlier, songs about desperation, songs about a police officer who just experience a traumatic shooting. When you leave the head and go into the heart to share something with emotional resonance and emotional honesty, that is, hopefully, something everyone can relate to.

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Woodland economy program under fire – The Recorder

Posted: at 3:34 am

The Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnerships aim is to enhance the economic development and preservation of privately owned woodland in 21 towns in the area.

But the 3-year-old joint effort by the Franklin Regional Council of Governments and Berkshire Regional Planning Commission with Franklin Land Trust faces criticism as it advances legislation for state designation and potentially state and federal funding.

With a public information session on that legislation Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Berkshire East ski lodge in Charlemont, the partnership faces leafleting, picketing and a campaign to encourage the Legislature to defeat the bill.

The partnership of towns from Leyden, Shelburne and Conway westward to the New York State line describes itself as working to increase economic development related to forestry and natural-resource-based tourism, support forest conservation on private lands and use of sustainable forestry practices and improve fiscal stability and sustainability of the towns.

Yet a Leverett-based group, Mass. Forest Rescue, focused on one of the projects 11 key elements: Promotion of forestry, forestry-related manufacturing, and/or research for new technologies related to forest-based products ...

Beth Adams of the self-described collaborative campaign to protect and restore Massachusetts forests, has described House Bill 2932, submitted by Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, as a fraudulent bill, which seeks to reach its goal by deceptive means. Her handout depicts the partnership as a Trojan Horse and notes that while the bill never mentions wood heat or wood energy, a project description mentions wood heat 26 times and pellets 40 times.

Franklin Regional Planning Director Margaret Sloan said, Its hard to understand how theyre interpreting this. She adds, The project has always been a compilation of different ideas from community members raised at 50 public meetings held throughout the project area of 11 western Franklin County and 10 Berkshire County towns.

A state-sponsored study of a community-scale wood pellet manufacturing plant that could make use of low-grade wood from private woodlots is under way by the University of Massachusetts Clean Energy Extension, looking at potential demand for wood heating for municipal buildings and other large-scale users around the heavily wooded towns, including the impact on air emissions from high-efficiency wood-burning equipment, plus the economic feasibility and environmental effects.

Completion of those studies has been delayed, Sloan said, but one done for the state Department of Energy Resources a year ago found that if there were a wood-pellet factory, it could draw on an estimated supply of 193,000 tons of low-grade green wood that could be sustainably harvested from privately owned woodland around the region.

Sloan says these are merely feasibility studies, and wood burning is just one part of a broader effort that could bring a U.S. Forest Service demonstration center for sustainable woodlot-management and forestry practices as well, as driver of tourism.

Its a very cutting-edge study being done by UMass to evaluate air emissions from energy-efficient wood heat and oil, she said, including monitoring of air-quality over two heating seasons.

Adams has written to the Legislatures Energy, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee criticizing a wasteful spending bill that sets up a $6 million fund with a control board largely consisting of special interests, while worsening climate change for all of us.

But Sloan points out no money has been projected for a pellet-making plant, nor is there any decision to go ahead with one. The business plan for a partnership, which would require a vote by affected towns to join after a bill passes, focuses around conservation restrictions, forestry business grants, municipal grants and establishing a visitor-research-marketing center.

COG Executive Director Linda Dunlavy said Adams comparison of the partnership to a now-defunct commercial-scale biomass project proposed for Greenfield is like apples and oranges.

She acknowledged that a state program to help schools like Hawlemont and Sanderson Academy replace inefficient oil furnaces with wood-fired boilers was admittedly kind of bad timing. This isnt related to that but if you were trying to find a link, your brain could make that leap.

Berkshire Regional Planning Assistant Director Thomas Matuszko said, The wood heat is very much a secondary aspect of this project. The broader long-term impact will be by good forest management, by the recreational benefits coming out of this and having stronger locally based businesses.

Dunlavy added, The towns see this as an opportunity to get some technical assistance and resources for some of the most distressed communities in our region, as a way to support the rural economy and preserve forests.

Still, Adams writes in one of her fliers, One feature exposing the Partnership as unsustainable is the unacknowledged collateral biodiversity destabilization and losses, which occur as the result of every logging operation and would worsen prospects for a healthy future for humans.

Arthur Schwenger of Heath, a partnership advisory committee member, says, A lot of people like wilderness, and theyd rather not touch anything, but at the present time, most of our forests, other than those that are in the National Park System, are managed one way or another. Were not talking of tearing all the forests down and burning them up. A lot of the objections are based on potential and fears. To be realistic, you have to back off from the extreme fears and talk about whats real and whats actually happening in the long-run. This woodlands partnership seems to be just that: trying to figure out where we are now, what are good practices, what are bad practices, and how can we best utilize the woodlands that we do have so they are sustainable.

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http://www.massforestrescue.org

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MLA candidates speak to child poverty issues in Ucluelet – Westerly News

Posted: at 3:34 am

Mid-Island Pacific Rim Candidates, from left, Rob Clarke (BC Libertarian), Julian Fells (BC Conservatives), Scott Fraser (NDP incumbent), Dan Cebuliak (BC Refederation), Alicia La Rue (BC Green) and Darren DeLuca (BC Liberal). (Photo - Nora OMalley)

Six hopefuls make their pitch before May 9s provincial election.

The West Coasts six Mid Island-Pacific Rim candidates were tasked to address the issue of child poverty at the public meeting in Ucluelet last week.

According to a regional Vital Signs report released in 2016, the West Coast has one of the highest child poverty rates in the province.

The report suggests 67 per cent of residents earn less than the local living wage, which is considered $19.27 per hour.

Scott Fraser, NDP MLA running for re-election and his fourth term, said the BC NDP have created a well-studied plan to reduce poverty.

We will be raising social assistance rates for the first time in a long time by $100 a month, he said.

Also people with disabilities, well be raising that by $100.

And if you recall last year the Premier clawed back the bus passes for people with disabilities, which was, I mean, I had people with developmental disabilities coming into my office going what are we going to do? So we are going to give it back to them of course, he said.

BC Conservative candidate Julian Fell said his party would take a different approach.

You could get the same effect by reducing costs. Instead of giving everybody $100 extra, what if everybody paid $100 less rent or $100 less for their living? Instead of just throwing money at something lets see how we can subtract expense from it, Fells said.

BC Liberal candidate Darren DeLuca said the best cure for poverty is a job.

Thats what we do. We created 220,000 jobs since 2011, he said.

In a lot of ways, its about representation. If youre looking to have this economy and this region improve, I think you will have to elect a candidate thats a doer. And thats what I am. I dont have all the flowery rhetoric and I cant quote back fifteen years, but Im very much a doer. Thats why I put my name forward, DeLuca said.

BC Green candidate Alicia La Rue said she agreed with both Fraser and DeLuca.

Jobs are a big thing to us well. The BC Green Party is focusing on bringing in a new economy. Yes, resource based economy is huge here in B.C., she said.

But, you know, so is tourism and so is tech industry. Tech industry will actual pay more than resource based industry. So we are definitely focused on that as well as bringing in more renewable technologies and businesses.

The Ucluelet all-candidates meeting was moderated by Jeanne Keith-Ferris and hosted by the Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce.

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The Progress Toward Sustainability | HuffPost – Huffington Post – Huffington Post

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The integration of economic development, modern management and environmental protection created the field of sustainability management. The effort to ensure that humans could continue to benefit from the miracle of this planet, and increase the distribution of those benefits to all of humanity is well underway. In some sense, it is a race against time as we learn how to reduce the impact of economic development on the planets ecological systems. Some environmental damage is irreversible, and in some cases remediation is extremely expensive. While the damage continues, I also see progress and I believe the momentum behind sustainability will increase. Human ingenuity, changing global culture and the health impacts of environmental destruction are factors that are leading to progress in the transition to a sustainable economy.

Population pressure continues to increase, but we now know that economic development brings declining birth and death rates and that in some developed nations, such as the United States, population would be shrinking without immigration. In developed countries, such as Japan, where immigration is rare, population is shrinking. While our society is aging, people are living longer, more productive and healthier lives. As the world develops, poverty decreases, and population begins to stabilize. While no one can predict the future, it is possible to foresee the end of the era of massive population growth.

We are also learning to apply technology to enable economic growth without increased levels of pollution. As I noted in a piece I wrote in late February:

A typical response I receive to this fact is that we must have exported all our dirty industry and that is why we could achieve this result. However, most air pollution comes from motor vehicles and power plants, and the outputs of those sources have grown, while technology has reduced their production of pollution.

We are also learning how to live more sustainable lifestyles. Weve replaced trips to the mall with trips to the gym. We are using bikes more, walking more, smoking less, and paying more attention to what we eat. Our cities are developing green infrastructure to reduce the impact of flooding on our streets and waterways. We are learning how to share autos, cabs and even homes when we travel. Young people are increasingly interested in experiences and less interested in owning stuff. More and more of our time is devoted to the low impact consumption of music, movies, news, games, social communication and anything else that appears on our smart phones. Young people think about where their food comes from and its impact on their own health and the health of other living beings.

A critically important indicator of progress is the changing attitudes of the public. This is most clearly seen in the views of young people in the developed world, but it is reflected in urban and community governance and in the changing behavior of many corporations. A recent study highlights the progress now underway:

Even as the climate deniers and fossil fuel zealots take over the federal government, industry, cities and communities are making the transition to a more efficient renewable energy based economy. This is being driven by a number of simultaneous positive developments:

Cities and companies see sustainability as a method of communicating their modernity and sensitivity to changing market and social conditions. State governments, particularly in California and New York are looking to modernize the electric grid and the business models of power utilities to permit decentralized, distributed generation of energy. They are doing this to improve the resiliency and cost of their energy systems to serve the needs of residents and businesses, but the environmental impact of smart-grids will be profound. Smart-grids will increase the use of renewables and reduce the vulnerability of our power system to natural and human made disasters.

As a management professor, one of the most promising trends I see is the deep interest of college and graduate students in learning how to integrate the physical dimensions of sustainability into routine organizational decision making and operations. Millennials are interested in energy use, healthy workplaces, water and material efficiency, and in reducing the environmental impacts of their organizations production process and of the goods and services they help create. This has not replaced other goals such as profit and market share in the private sector and accomplishment of key missions in the public sector, but it is viewed as means of achieving routine organizational goals. Just as a good accounting system facilitates organizational productivity, well-managed physical resources contribute to an organizations efficiency and effectiveness. This is a generation that is comfortable with technology and expects instantaneous access to information about everything. Cost data promotes reduced use of material resources and waste reduction. The goal of reducing environmental impact is seen as consistent with other goals and not something they need to trade off if they are to succeed.

We are in the early stages of a politics and culture built on perceptions generated via social media. These new forms of communication are used to gather people to demonstrate against injustice, but are also used to spread inaccurate accounts of people and events. The internet enabled Barack Obama to raise the funds needed to win the Presidency in 2008 and the entertainment value of Donald Trump brought TV ratings and web site clicks more typical of reality television than TV news. We live in an observed world where everyone with a smartphone is a videographer, and if people arent present to record something, cameras, drones and satellites are often available to fill in. This means that fiction can easily go viral, but so too can the images of toxics leaking into a water supply. Global warming is no hoax to people who see images of ice sheets melting; and deforestation can be seen from aerial images that are a click away. Over-fishing in our oceans in part due to Chinas growing wealth and demand is an emerging crisis that adds to the impression that we are using up the planets resources.

Young people know the planet is more crowded and that resources and opportunities are both becoming increasingly scarce. I believe that these perceptions underlie the broadly based, non-ideological drive for sustainability. While the long term political impact of the internet and constant communication is not yet clear (it brought us Obama and Trump), the facts of environmental degradation are more difficult to hide. It may be possible to deny climate change models, but orange rivers and particulate-laden skies provide simple and easy-to-understand messages.

Negative factors may motivate some of the drive toward sustainability, but I believe most of the progress is coming because a sustainable, renewable resource based life style is satisfying and positive. Sitting in a traffic jam is less fun than riding a bike. Paying less for electricity is no ones idea of suffering. A positive vision of sustainability underlies much of the progress we have made thus far, and will be of increasing importance as the transition to a renewable resource based economy gains momentum.

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Major Economic Report Shows Mitigated Mining Construction Slowdown – The Urban Developer

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A2017 Economic Forecast released by Consult Australia revealed that Government investment in infrastructure has helped tomitigate against the impact of stalled mining construction.

Figures in the report for engineering, architectural and surveying consultancy firms, showed that while the share of work relating to heavy industry dropped last year below the previous decades, average [42.7% to 40.9%] work on roads and highways increased [16.3% to 19.7%] softening the impact.

Consult Australia Chief Executive Megan Motto said continued increases in population, combined with a recognised need to transition from a resource-led to knowledge-based economy, has seen governments invest in ways to efficiently connect people and products to markets through infrastructure.

This has led to a healthy pipeline of public sector projects which has in turn helped mitigate against the impact of mining construction slowdown and enabled our sector to contribute significantly towards Australias continued economic growth, she said.

The forecast produced by Australian Construction Insights covers domestic and international economic conditions, population dynamics, construction sector conditions and consulting industry forecasts up to 2021.

With historically low bond rates and triple-A credit rating increasing access for governments to finance future projects, confidence is returning and our sector has an optimistic outlook in the short term,Ms Motto said.

The report included the following highlights:

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Basic Income pilot critical for reducing food insecurity: health unit – www.muskokaregion.com/

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Basic Income pilot critical for reducing food insecurity: health unit
http://www.muskokaregion.com/
This week's announcement to offer a strong, progressive form of basic income is exciting, said Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lisa Simon. The rationale for a basic income guarantee is solid. There have been several basic income projects ...

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David Green, GETTING PAID TO DO NOTHING: WHY THE IDEA OF CHINA’S DIBAO IS CATCHING ON – Basic Income News

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Hong Kongs newspaper of record, South China Morning Post, recently covered the surge of interest inUniversal Basic Income (UBI) in the Asia Pacific.

The author, David Green, points out the positive data that has been demonstrated thus far from cash-grant experiments, such as in India.

South Korea has had interest in basic income since the youth dividend was implemented in Seongnam city. BIEN held itsCongress in South Korea last year.

The article notes that Taiwan is seeing increased interest in the idea of basic income since the first Asia Pacific focused Basic Income conference was held in Taipei.

The headline references Chinas dibao program, which is a cash-grant minimum income guarantee.The dibao has many differences to UBI as conceived by Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). Primarily, dibaois not a universal cash-grant (dibao is means-tested and only given to those that are under the dibao poverty line).

Due to dibaosmeans-tests, the article notes there are an array of issues withChinas minimum income guarantee, primarily that it does not reach the poor.

Tyler Prochazka, features editor of BI News, was quoted as advocating for China to create special economic zones to test a UBI.

David Green, GETTING PAID TO DO NOTHING: WHY THE IDEA OF CHINAS DIBAO IS CATCHING ON, South China Morning Post, April 14, 2017.

Tyler Prochazka has written 61 articles.

Tyler Prochazka is a Fulbright scholar completing his Master's in Asia Pacific Studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. He is the features editor of Basic Income News and a coordinator for UBI Taiwan. Tyler launched the first Asia-Pacific basic income conference in 2017. Facebook.com/TaiwanUBI @typro

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Do You Live On The Front Lines Of Automation? – Fast Company – Fast Company

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By Adele Peters 05.05.17 | 4:00 pm

If you live in Las Vegas, El Paso, or Louisville, theres a particularly good chance that your job could be taken by a robot in the next two decades.

Using data from a 2013 Oxford study that found that nearly half of American jobs are at risk from automationfrom truck driving and telemarketing to legal assistantsa new study maps out which cities are likely to lose the most jobs. (The next phase of the research will look at how the risk affects people differently based on age, race, educational level, and other demographic factors, and will break down data further by ZIP code).

Researchers at the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis at the University of Redlands wanted to make the risk tangible and understandable through the new study.

If I tell you that 50% of the jobs in the United States are at risk from automation right now, thats a very different idea than saying, Hey, here in San Bernardino, were facing x-percent automation risk, Johannes Moenius, the institutes director, tells Fast Company. People know the social fabric, they know the types of jobs that exist here. Then it hits home, and people understand we need to do something. We cant just wait for this to happen.

While the last wave of automation took away some middle-class workparticularly factory and mining jobsthe current wave of automation will hit lower-income jobs hardest. Robots are already beginning to brew coffee, flip burgers, and bake pizza. Agricultural robots can pick strawberries and weed carrot fields. As many as 1.7 million truck driver could be replaced by self-driving trucks, as one of theearly casualties of new automation.

What were seeing is this wave of automation is going to specifically affect the less educated, Moenius says. There are lots and lots of them. Possibilities that weve thought about in recent years are now hitting the range where they become economically feasible. Its just so incredibly fast, and its affecting so many jobs at a time.

Just because the technology exists doesnt guarantee that it will be adopted, but the map looks at what is possible. We have to be very clear, being at risk of automation doesnt mean that a job necessarily gets automated, he says. I cant imagine that we suddenly have all poker dealers or all waiters suddenly replaced by robots. High-end restaurants will still have waiters because thats part of the experience. But this tells you whats the technical possibility. And specifically on the lower end of the food chain, whatevers going to be possible to get automated, will get automated.

The study maps the Oxford research about which jobs are most at risk onto employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S.Bubbles that are more red indicate a higher share of jobs at risk; the size of each bubble indicates how many workers were employed in 2016. In the Las Vegas metropolitan area, 65.2% of jobs are at risk. El Paso follows at 63.9%.

Three categories of jobs make up around half of the possible losses in the largest metropolitan areas: office and administrative support, food preparation and serving, and sales-related jobs. In certain areas, such as Riverside, California and Louisville, transportationjobs also make upa large portion of the losses.

Fighting automation wont work, Moenius says. If we dont automate, China will do it for us, and well have wage-reversal. Instead, governments, industries, and educational institutions should be thinking about how to prepare, including retraining programs.

I dont think there is a one-size-fits-all solution to this, he says. We really believe that each city will have to find its own way. As cities rethink employment, they will also likely have to rethink land use. Moenius points out that in his own area, Southern Californias Inland Empire, people live next to the warehouses and freeways that support a logistics economy; as work shifts, that layout should also change.

If your own job is at risk (this handy calculator will help you understand), you can work on learning new skills. Initiatives that try to foster stem education really go in the right direction, because if you speak math then you can learn how to deal with problems that we dont even know are problems yet, he says. Problem-solving, spatial thinking, having an understanding of multidisciplinary issuesthese are things that everyone who has to make a decision of what I should be educated in now [should think about].

Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley.

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