Daily Archives: July 7, 2017

FOX 40 WICZ TV – News, Sports, Weather, Contests & More … – WICZ

Posted: July 7, 2017 at 2:10 am

OWEGO, N.Y. -

United States Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) visited Lockheed Martin's helicopter production hangar in Owego on Thursday afternoon to get an update on the company's projects and to reassure employees that he's working to keep jobs in the Southern Tier.

"We will be spending a few minutes with him, later on, to talk about the progress of our programs and more importantly to share with him the incredible accomplishments of the women and men of this Owego workforce," said Paula Hartley, Lockheed Martin Owego General Manager.

He has been a wonderful partner to us and a big believer of growing the economy in New York State. He has been a very good, long-standing partner with Lockheed, with this facility, and our Rotary Wing programs including MH-60, the Combat Rescue Helicopter and the Presidential Helicopter.

Paula Hartley

There are three projects that the Senator calls his "pet projects" because they are important to the economy in New York as well as for National Security.

Lockheed Martin Helicopters

"Our fighting men and women are the most wonderful people in the world, many of them come from this area, so they need the best equipment in the world," said Schumer.

The Senator expects the Military Budget to increase for the second year in a row and as a result, he plans to direct more money into Owego, the Southern Tier, and Upstate New York.

"The budget is coming up very soon and I'll be working very hard to maximize the budget dollars that go into these three projects," said Schumer.

Whenever I can help with jobs, I do it and there's no more important job magnet in the whole Southern Tier than this plant right here.

The Owego Facility, which has 2,600 workers is one of the most important pieces of the State's economy, according to Schumer.

"This is by far and away the largest and most important private employer here in Tioga County," said Schumer. "This is one of our economic mainstays, not only in Tioga County but of all of Upstate New York."

"It's always important whenever we have the support of our elected officials for any big company that's in our area," saidGwen Kania, Tioga Chamber of Commerce President. "We're happy that he always supports Tioga County and we hope that he can convince the budget people to continue to support us here."

Schumer wrote a letter to the Secretary of Defense, Jeff Mattis, urging him to continue to support the three helicopter programs that come out of Owego.

Dear Secretary Mattis:

I write to urge your continued support for three helicopter programs that are important to our national security and to regional economies across the country: The Air Forces Combat Rescue Helicopter (CSAR Recapitalization), the Presidential Helicopter (Executive Helo Development) and MH-60 Romeo Helicopter programs. Each of these platforms has an important presence in New York, supporting over 1,000 engineering, manufacturing, and production jobs. While the Departments support of funding for these programs is important to industry and rural economies in places across our nation, like Owego, New York, a continued investment is more important as these aircraft age and new security threats emerge.

The Combat Rescue Helicopter performs critical combat rescue and personnel recovery operations across the services. Over the past few years, these helicopters have participated in countless missions in Iraq and Afghanistan in support of our Joint and Coalition forces. The USAF needs to replace the current aging combat rescue helicopter fleet with aircraft capable of performing the demanding personnel recovery missions, including combat rescue and casualty evacuation. I ask for your support of this program in Fiscal Year 2018 and beyond.

The Presidential Helicopter Program (VH-92A) is the replacement helicopter for the VH-3D and VH-60N. This new fleet of VH-92A helicopters will continue providing safe and timely transportation for the President and Vice-President of the United States, as well as other heads of state and support the Presidential world-wide vertical-lift mission. I ask for your continued support of this program to ensure that replacement remains on schedule.

The MH-60 Romeo Naval Hawk is designed to support multi-mission helicopter requirements. The Romeos primary missions are Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) and SUW as well as Search and Rescue and Humanitarian Missions. Additional aircraft are needed per the Navys new Force Structure Assessment. The current fleet of MH-60 aircraft are approaching the end of their service life due to high demand on the fleet. Based on age and aircraft utilization rates, the Navy will have to replace their in the mid-2030s. This will result in an inventory gap in the mid-2030s. To mitigate this shortfall, the Navy is planning a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) beginning with the MH-60S in approximately 2023. While a SLEP is required to extend the life of the current fleet taking these aircraft out of service to perform the SLEP creates an inventory shortfall. To avoid a shortfall in inventory, I ask for your support SLEP Research and Development funds in FY18, as well as funding for mid-life upgrades.

Thank you for your attention to these items. Please do not hesitate to reach out to my office for any questions.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

United States Senator

Schumer says all three projects "are strong right now," but there is always room to grow and he doesn't want to miss that opportunity. In his closed-door meeting with Lockheed Officials, he discussed some of the new Plans that the Armed Forces are proposing, but he couldn't discuss them publicly.

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Visual Art: True to Life British Realist Painting in the 1920s and 1930s at Scottish National Gallery of Modern … – Herald Scotland

Posted: at 2:09 am

THE BEST known story of British art in the 1930s is in the grounds outside the National Gallery of Modern Art. A reclining figure, a rock form with holes Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth these are the sculptors, the artists which we remember. But it is not the only story of art in the 1930s, as this new exhibition amply and rather fabulously demonstrates.

There are 58 painters in this large but not unwieldy show, the first-ever exhibition of a forgotten generation working in the realist tradition. The realism was not just in their staggering detailed technical attention to the depiction of the world around them, but in their subject matter, from changing technology to the evolving role of women. A diverse grouping never a movement these disparate artists flew in the face of abstraction and expressionism to convey their own perceptions of life in the interwar period, often deliberately evasive (yet not entirely dismissive) of the horrors of the war which much of the population had just been through.

And what a hugely surprisingly and eye-opening show it is. The aesthetic is in many ways instantly familiar, for this is partly the art of the iconic 1930s railways posters, of the age of the new leisure pursuit, of fitness and health in the face of austerity and poverty. This is the age when the lido became popular, when swimsuits, so we are told in the blurb next to Harold Williamsons stylishly posed swimmer, Spray (1939), were made from a new latex fabric, rather than baggy wool.

In similar vein, James Walker Tuckers Hiking (c.1936), a healthy vista of young women in shorts and what passed, then, for walking shoes, pouring over a map of the Cotswolds, rucksacks and billy cans on their backs. Its a scene so overflowing with health, cleanliness and a curious freshness of light (which is, in part, down to Tuckers choice of tempera as medium) that it seems to echo the calls of those such as the Sunlight League, founded in 1922, to restore sunlight to our malurbanized millions, to those residing in the dirty, polluted cities which Ruskin had once denounced.

There is much cleaning up of dirty situations in these frequently luminous images, much idealizing of (nonetheless realistic) landscape. Edward Wadsworths view, again in egg tempera, of the notorious red light district, Rue Fontaine de Caylus, Marseilles (1924), is a pastel-hued vista of vertiginous clothes lines hiding the dark doorways off the street below.

Darkness is more evident in the portraits of Gerald Leslie Brockhurst, a society painter society that included Marlene Dietrich and the Duchess of Windsor whose luminous oils are represented here by Dorette (1933), a striking portrait of the woman who was to become his lover, and By the Hills (1939), a painting so glamorous the word was that the painter had used real lipstick for the lips. Both are painted in front of Italianate backgrounds, reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci.

Brockhurst, who also worked as a printmaker, was just one of many looking back art historically to the classical period, to Italy, to the Netherlands in an attempt to reinvigorate, to mark a sea change from the time and reality of war.

There are many striking portraits here, sometimes of athletes or gymnasts, sometimes of wives, families, evacuees and domestic scenes. Meredith Framptons immaculate Woman Reclining has a glossy luminosity, a pared-back classicism emphasized by the simple white dress, the red shoes, the almost complete absence of visible brush strokes.

Further on, there is Bernard Fleetwood Walkers more tactile, vulnerable and human portrait of evacuees, Children in the Country (1942). And then, subverting but reinforcing the genre, there are Alan Beetons curious but striking oils of lay figures posed or left in a chair, doll humans given the scrutiny, as his peers noted, of a Dutch master.

Stanley Spencer is the name most will know from this era of realism, and there are a number of his works here, not least in a room of religious tableaux. These works, by various artists, are all largely transposed to more modern or contemporary classical (the 1920s equivalent of a theatre director putting everyone in grey suits) settings, notably Spencers unfussy St. Veronica Unmasking Christ (1921).

In a further change in style, the dour brilliance of Winifred Knights (1899 1947) whose The Deluge is a masterpiece of balletic, angular movement, an instant sombre rush of figures and supplicant hands, moving in one wave away from the flood which threatens to consume them.

In the final room, harking back to Victoriana in its very traditional tableaux yet capturing the zeitgeist, there is Charles Spencelayhs stoic First World War veteran, sitting in his lonely parlour on the eve of World War Two, staring into the distance as if the cipher for all the unexpressed fears of all the painters and workers, hikers, debutantes and swimmers of the interwar years. It is an emotive image, quietly capturing the futility, the remembered horror, and placing it right in the heart of the realists intricately detailed domestic arena.

True to Life: British Realist Painting in the 1920s and 1930s

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two), Edinburgh until October 29

http://www.nationalgalleries.org

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Dan Delmar: How some polling can breed discrimination – Montreal Gazette

Posted: at 2:09 am

Modern politicians recognize that an abundance of demographic data can pollute policy decisions, Dan Delmar writes. Dario Ayala / Montreal GAZETTE

Political polling can be informative and enlightening when it gauges public opinion with relative accuracy. When political parties and media rely too heavily on polls that divide electorates along cultural lines, however, demographic data could inspire less enlightened ideas.

One such idea, still far too accepted in pluralistic democracies, is that the views of minority citizens are worth less than views of those who belong to the cultural majority.

In Quebec, polling among francophones is common practice, but it merits some reflection ahead of next years provincial elections. Though reflexively dividing the electorate along linguistic lines could in part be a reflection of institutionalized nationalism, it is widely accepted industry practice and by no means unique to Quebec pollsters.

Political prognostication might not be an exact science, but it is a legitimate private-sector endeavour. Works like Le Code Qubec can reveal fascinating truths about this society, truths that work in favour of arguments for diversity.

As unimpeachable as pollsters believe their methodologies to be, surveys are often commissioned by political parties and others interested less in demography and more in manipulating data to further exclusionary narratives.

There is nothing inaccurate or unethical with, for instance, a Quebec newspaper reporting on polls like last months describing, as the Montreal Gazette did, the key francophone-only category, which actually decides who wins the election because it is spread in many ridings across Quebecs capacious political map.

What is less ethical is having much of the political class fostering a climate where its encouraged to shamelessly appeal almost exclusively to the majoritys perceived sensibilities over the long-term collective interests of Quebecers.

Anglophones also receive unwarranted preferential treatment.

Just as attempting to capture the francophone zeitgeist can be myopic, prioritizing anglophone concerns as the second-most relevant category also contributes to repressing the views of less historically privileged minority groups. In polls, they are often lumped into the allophone or other category, a smorgasbord of ethnics whose identities and priorities are rarely worth quantifying, let alone considering in legislation.

One neednt look far to find examples of destructive demographics.

South of the border, Donald Trumps presidential campaign relied heavily on mass outrage but it was also successful because of the sophisticated microtargeting of white voters in key Rust Belt districts. The consequences for minorities of his narrow appeal, from travel bans to the elimination of basic social services, are becoming more frightening by the day. Gerrymandering electoral districts based on racial demographics will only further cement institutional discrimination.

While language-based policies are less toxic than the racial kind, both are discriminatory. They are also becoming less effective by the day, as millennials and younger Canadians children of multiculturalism defy long-held stereotypes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron could be seen as examples of successful millennial-driven leadership with more universal appeal. Modern politicians recognize that an abundance of demographic data can pollute policy decisions and, since all citizens are theoretically equal in a democracy, much of this data should ultimately be considered immaterial to crafting truly successful political movement.

All polling could be limited in the days or preferably weeks leading up to a vote rather than only the day of (the guideline currently enforced by Elections Canada), but unfortunately, there are few simple solutions. Bans on cultural polling would be unfeasible in an age of widely available Internet metadata, and possibly unconstitutional.

The onus is on political parties and, to a lesser extent, the polling industry to self-regulate and resist the temptation to use data to place greater value on one group of citizens over another. Political polling is most valuable when it measures impressions, not identities.

Dan Delmar is a political commentator and managing partner, public relations, with TNKR Media

twitter.com/DanDelmar

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Putin’s weak economic hand – The Boston Globe

Posted: at 2:08 am

Foreign currency mortgage borrowers rallied against banks in Moscow in 2014, holding balloons reading Mortgage.

As President Vladimir Putin of Russia meets President Trump this week at the G-20 summit, it will hardly be from a position of economic strength. Despite the steep drop in oil prices that began three years ago, Russia has managed to escape a deep financial crisis. But while the economy is enjoying a modest rebound after two years of deep recession, the future no longer seems as promising as its leadership thought just five years ago. Barring serious economic and political reform, that bodes ill for Putins ability to realize his strategic ambitions for Russia.

Back in 2012, when Putin appeared onstage with the Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman at a Moscow bank conference, Russias 1998 economic crisis seemed a distant memory. With oil prices well over a $100 a barrel, the governments coffers were bursting. So Putin could proudly contrast Russias government budget surplus with large recession-driven deficits across the West. He surely delighted in having Russian audiences hear Krugmans view that Western democracies had come up badly short in handling the global financial crisis.

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In a different session, Russian academic economist Sergei Guriev (who later had to flee the country) argued that there was no hope for diversification of Russias resource-based economy as long as institutions such as courts were so weak. Too many key decisions rested with one man. Speaking in the same session, I emphasized that without fundamental reforms, a sharp drop in global energy prices would create profound problems.

Inevitably, that drop came, with prices plummeting from $119 in February 2012 (for Brent crude oil in Europe) to $27 in 2016. Even the current level (under $50 at the start of July 2017), is less than half the 2011-2012 peak. For a country that depends on oil and natural gas for the lions share of export revenue, the price collapse has been a massive blow, rippling through the economy.

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The fact that Russia has avoided a financial crisis is remarkable and largely due to the efforts of the Central Bank of Russia. But the burden of adjustment has largely fallen on consumers, owing to a roughly 50 percent drop in the rubles value relative to the dollar; real wages and consumption both fell sharply.

The attorney general gave a vote of confidence to Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation.

The shock to the real economy has been severe, with Russia suffering a decline in output in 2015 and 2016 comparable to what the United States experienced during its 2008-2009 financial crisis, with the contraction in GDP totaling about 4 percent. Many firms went bankrupt, and in 2016 the International Monetary Fund estimated that almost 10 percent of all bank loans were nonperforming (a figure that surely understates the severity of the situation).

In many cases, banks chose to relend funds rather than take losses onto their books or force politically connected firms into bankruptcy. At the same time, though, the Central Bank moved aggressively to force smaller banks to raise capital and write down bad loans. And, in the face of intense lobbying by powerful oligarchs, the Central Bank kept interest rates up to tame inflation, which had reached more than 15 percent but has since fallen to close to 4 percent.

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Of course, Western sanctions, particularly restrictions on banks, have exacerbated the situation. But the media tend to over-emphasize this aspect of Russias economic woes. All countries that rely heavily on energy exports have suffered, especially those, like Russia, that have failed to diversify their economies.

In a Western democracy, an economic collapse on the scale experienced by Russia would have been extremely difficult to digest politically, as the global surge in populism demonstrates. Yet Putin has been able to remain firmly in control and, in all likelihood, will easily be able to engineer another landslide victory in the presidential election due in March 2018.

Russias state-owned media juggernaut has been able to turn Western sanctions into a scapegoat for the governments own failures, and to whip up support for foreign adventurism including the seizure of the Crimea, military intervention in Syria, and meddling in US elections. Most Russians, constantly manipulated by their countrys schools and media, are convinced that conditions are much worse in the West (a hyperbolic claim even in the era of fake news).

Unfortunately, such disinformation is hardly a recipe for generating reform. And, without reform, there is little reason to be optimistic about Russias long-run growth trend, given its poor demographic profile, weak institutions, and abject failure to diversify its economy, despite having an enormously talented and creative population.

Where will future growth come from? If the world continues to move toward a low-carbon future, Russia will confront an inevitable choice: Launch economic and political reforms, or face continuing marginalization, with or without Western sanctions. No meeting between the US and Russian presidents can change this reality.

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Alberta hits the trifecta for GHG emissions – REMI Network – REMI Network – Real Estate Management Industry Network

Posted: at 2:08 am

A newly released communiqu from the National Energy Board highlights Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario as standouts among mediocre performers aiming for Canadas greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target. In particular, the two Atlantic provinces are hailed for already achieving a 30 per cent drop in GHG emissions within their borders compared to 2005 levels, but accompanying federal sustainability indicators accentuate that more populous and economically productive areas of the country are well off that pace.

Nationwide, Canadas annual GHG output fell from 738 (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) to 722 Mt CO2e over the first 10 years of its commitment period under the Paris Agreement. This leaves a substantial gap still to close to reach the targeted 523 Mt CO2e by 2030.

Canada must reduce its GHG emissions by 28 per cent within the next 14 years, the National Energy Board release affirms.

Differing populations, economic drivers and sources of electricity generation are easily discernible in the provincial/territorial breakdown of emissions statistics. Together, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia accounted for just 4.2 per cent of national emissions in 2015. However, even before their impressive curtailment, they contributed less than 6 per cent of national emissions in 2005.

A move away from coal-fired electricity generation underpins much of the improved performance in the three provinces receiving kudos. Ontario registered the largest volumetric decline in emissions, which fell from 204.4 Mt CO2e in 2005 to 166.2 Mt CO2e in 2015. Across Canada, emissions from coal-fired electricity generation dropped from 95 to 61 Mt CO2e in the same period, with 21 Mt of that decrease occurring within Ontario.

Economic malaise and restructuring fill in the rest of the GHG reduction story, with decreased manufacturing activity, shut-down of the Dartmouth refinery and Ontarios declining emissions from heavy industry credited.

British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec all enjoy a low-carbon hydroelectric-based electricity supply, but had somewhat disparate emissions tallies, as Quebec registered a 10 per cent decrease, B.C. saw a 5 per cent drop and Manitoba edged slightly above its 2005 emissions output with a 0.9 per cent increase. Saskatchewan the lone provincial/territorial holdout onthe Pan-Canadian Framework on Climate Change recorded a more significant jump, with emissions growing to 75 Mt CO2e in 2015 from 69.5 in 2005.

Meanwhile, Alberta hits the GHG trifecta with a resource-based economy, surging population growth and a carbon-intensive electricity grid. The oil and gas sector is the single greatest national source for GHG emissions, representing 26 per cent of the 2015 national tally, and it has also become more carbon-intensive as the industry expands in Albertas oil sands. The provincial population rose by 26 per cent between 2005 and 2015 surpassing the 11 per cent national average and adding to the emissions output of both the transportation and electricity sectors. Annual GHG emissions rose nearly 18 per cent over the 10-year period, from 233.8 to 274.1 Mt CO2e by 2015.

Pulling the lens out 25 years, the sustainability indicators report further outlines the Ontario-Alberta GHG divide. In 1990, Ontarios GHG emissions were higher than those from other provinces because of its large manufacturing industry. Albertas emissions subsequently surpassed Ontarios, increasing 56 per cent since 1990, primarily due to the increase in the oil and gas sector for export markets, it explains.

Nevertheless, they have simply traded places in the big-two rankings of provincial/territorial emitters. In 2015, the combined emissions from Alberta and Ontario represented 61 per cent (38 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively) of the national total, the report notes.

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As Hedge Funds Move To Automation, Some Managers Prefer Human Analysts – Investopedia

Posted: at 2:07 am

The struggling hedge fund world has seen more and more firms turn to computers for the heavy lifting of analytics in recent years. Quant firms have come to dominate large portions of the industry. In the most recent edition of Institutional Investor's Alpha's list of largest hedge funds in the world by AUM, quant firms figured prominently at the top of the rankings. (See also: What are the Biggest Hedge Funds in the World?)

Particularly at a time when client confidence in hedge funds is faltering, many managers are seeing computers as a way to secure the quickest, most thoroughly-researched bets. And yet, there are other managers who are pushing in the opposite direction, recognizing that old-fashioned human decision-making has something to offer as well.

A recent profile by Bloomberg introduces four significant money managers who have moved toward human decision-making and analysis in recent weeks. The report indicates that investment decisions at Winton, a $30.6 billion hedge fund that has a 20-year history of using computer algorithms for trading purposes, must still ultimately be made by humans.

Michael Hintze, a manager of another unnamed fund, indicated in the report that computer models are useful for spotting anomalies in the market, but these models are rarely able to suggest the best ways to answer these anomalies or turn them into worthwhile investment opportunities. Other managers believe that human beings are more useful when it comes to detecting patterns.

Why the sudden deference to human decision-making, which is, of course, prone to human emotion, misjudgment, and more? In recent years, many workers in the finance industry have wondered if the days of human employees are numbered. Some money managers have experimented with automating all sorts of areas of the sector, from securities underwriting to the management of portfolios. What's more, major figures in the finance world and the tech landscape have cautioned that machine learning may usher in a new wave of automation. (See also: Artificial Intelligence Hedge Funds Outperforming Humans.)

Executives at Winton indicated in a letter that there is, in fact, room for automation in the hedge fund industry. Nonetheless, those leaders believe that computers are not ready to make independent investment decisions. They still require humans to run the operations and oversee decisions at every stage. "The notion that human involvement in investment management should, or even could, be fully automated is wide of the mark," the executives wrote.

So how should humans ensure that they remain viable in a world increasingly dominated by machines? The simple answer is that workers should be prepared to diversify their abilities, be flexible in adopting technological partners, and, perhaps above all, be confident that they are very much necessary in order to ensure that everything functions as it should.

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How CPAs Can Survive The Automation Revolution – Accountingweb.com (blog)

Posted: at 2:07 am

In recent years, the threat of automation has loomed ever larger over firms in virtually every industry. Millions of Americans now justifiably fear being replaced by a machine or program, including nail-biting CPAs.

In 2015, PwC made headlines with a study that found accounting to be the most likely job to be automated in the coming years. Bookkeepers may find themselves in need of drastically overhauling their skillset, should they hope to remain relevant in the future.

How, then, can a CPA firm survive oncoming automation? By following these steps, you can ensure a lucrative spot for yourself in the workplace of the future, and even exploit the forthcoming revolution.

Move beyond the data

While accountants may find themselves restless with the realization that much of the number-crunching theyre responsible for can be automated, they should be looking forward to the opportunity to automate dull work so they can focus on the big picture.

A professional CPAs value stems not from his or her ability to garner and crunch large swaths of data, but rather their ability to interpret that data and draw conclusions from it. Accountants will remain pertinent to business operations only if they excel at keeping their eye on larger trends, and can offer the invaluable service of translating numbers into actionable ideas.

Automating routine task will enable the CPAs of tomorrow to become data specialist who navigate foggy areas clouded by near-infinite amounts of data. When less skilled task such as banal bookkeeping is completed using software, experts in the field of finance with a history of identifying the signal amidst the noise will still find themselves in high demand.

Prepare to exploit new industries

The rise of automation amidst the continuing information revolution brings with it a whole slew of new industries and opportunities. CPA firms that begin building the foundations of a 21st century business now will be well poised to swoop in and offer their services to new companies and customers as they arrive.

As car companies increasingly devote resources to building autonomous vehicles, for instance, the entire transportation industry is likely to change. CPAs who hope to be employed by companies likely to automate many of their own jobs should, then, familiarize themselves with that technology ahead of time.

Creating an anticipatory organization model, or developing the skills needed to foresee sudden market changes, may be one way for CPA firms to prepare themselves for coming changes. Only after an accountant has become sure of their future can he or she take steps to truly shape it.

CPA firms should become part of the process as their client companies begin making plans for an unknown future. Interpreting huge sums of data to identify changing trendlines in your clients market, for instance, will go a long way toward making your services to them invaluable. By focusing on future performances rather than past results, an accountant can remain innovative and salable to clients.

Find your accounting niche

As straightforward task become part of the realm of the robots, your marketability as an accountant will increasingly rely on your expertise in a certain niche area. Embrace the process of specializing in one aspect of your field, and focus on setting yourself apart from your competitors who will vie for what jobs remain.

Adjusting to auditing logistics of companies that have huge operations but very few human workers, for instance, will position you to thrive in a forthcoming high-demand area with a low supply of professionals.

Focusing on delivering your clients the analysis they need in real time by working closely with new programs will render your services invaluable. By focusing on one company or industry, you enable yourself to become the preeminent expert in that field.

It is critical to begin making this adjustment early. An accountant or firm that waits too long to modernize will soon find themselves left behind in the dust as their competitors snag the latest contracts and opportunities. Rather than compete with the robots, learn to adapt and work with them, expanding your capabilities and reassuring clients that youre worthy of future partnerships.

CPA firms which exploit their human potential will be those best prepared for a future defined by sudden and sporadic change. Accounts wont always be able to beat the machines, but those savvy professionals who embrace them and their capabilities will always be able to exploit them.

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Cisco automation code needs manual patch – The Register

Posted: at 2:07 am

In Cisco's weekly security update list, there are three critical bugs affecting its Elastic Services Controller and Ultra Services Framework.

Switchzilla warns its Elastic Services Controller (a network function virtualisation management environment) has static default credentials that would let a remote attacker log into the controller's UI.

The credentials are shared between multiple installations, meaning a miscreant could generate an admin session token that allows access to all instances of the ESC web UI.

There's also a privilege escalation bug: user tomcat has access to shell commands that lets that user overwrite any file on the system, and elevate their privilege to root.

The first bug in the Ultra Services Framework's (USF) automation service has an insecure configuration of the Apache ZooKeeper service, which again is remotely exploitable if the attacker can get at the orchestrator network.

The framework also has a bug in its staging server: a goof in shell invocations means an unauthenticated remote attacker can craft CLI command inputs to execute Linux shell commands as the root user.

There's also a credential disclosure bug in the USF's AutoVNF: it logs admin credentials in clear text, which an attacker can retrieve if they know the logfile's URL.

The same product also has a symbolic link error that exposes the system to arbitrary file read and malicious code execution.

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Slow march of the robots: Biggest barrier to automation is trust – The Providence Journal

Posted: at 2:07 am

Hundreds of companies are trying to disrupt the way we consume, work and move. The economy's growth potential could be higher if smart machines could turbocharge how humans go about their tasks. Higher productivity, or output per hour, would boost corporate profits and may help U.S. workers finally get a pay raise. Here's why that economic nirvana isn't happening just yet.

Vik Singh's company has powerful artificial intelligence software that helps firms hunt down the best sales leads. Getting somebody to use it well, that's a story that says a lot about the U.S. push into automation.

U.S. businesses have every incentive to adopt labor-saving technologies, replacing factory workers with robots and desk jobs with smart software. In some areas, such as finance, machine decision-making is advancing quickly. In others, there are obstacles. Overall, while the penetration of automation in the economy is happening, it is taking place at a slower pace than futurists expected.

Singh tells customers how his system can help trim sales prospecting staff and boost revenue. Managers are intrigued but sometimes reluctant to entrust a high-touch business such as sales to a black box.

"They just don't understand it," says the co-founder and chief executive officer of Infer Inc. in Mountain View, California. "And they don't believe it."

Hundreds of companies are trying to disrupt the way we consume, work, or move. The economy's growth potential could be higher if smart machines could turbocharge how humans go about their tasks. Higher productivity, or output per hour, would boost corporate profits and may help U.S. workers finally get a pay raise.

That economic nirvana just isn't happening yet.

Productivity in the U.S. rose only 1.1 percent last year, and rather than being replaced by technology, more workers are being hired. Employers have added an average of 159,000 new jobs a month so far in this expansion, compared with 99,000 in the previous upswing. Over the same period, investment in intellectual property products, such as software, has barely edged up as a share of GDP versus the last cycle.

"Low labor productivity is the biggest problem with the story," said Andrew McAfee, co-director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Initiative on the Digital Economy and co-author of "The Second Machine Age," a book about the next wave of technology. "Some of these pretty profound innovations are going to take time to diffuse."

There isn't a single story that explains why second-wave technologies are trickling rather than flooding into the economy. Bloomberg News spoke with several to find out how the pace of technological adoption is proceeding. Here are some of the themes that emerged:

Here are some of their stories:

Social Tables helps companies with event space sell it to planners who need it, while also providing collaborative tools. The Washington-based company started using Infer about three years ago after launching a mobile app that gave it about 12,000 new sales leads.

The event space and planning market is large and varied. Sorting through those leads to find potential subscribers would have been a gigantic human task, said Trevor Lynn, the chief marketing officer. The company also turns up about 3,000 new leads a month.

Social Tables had a couple of choices: Hire an expensive database engineer or many more salespeople to sift the data. Instead, they use Infer, which sorts, queries and offers up live feedback on how the leads are performing. This kind of big-data hunting and vision would be difficult for any human to replicate in real time.

"We don't need as many lead qualification folks," Lynn said. While Social Tables didn't replace anybody with Infer's software, "it definitely shapes your hiring map in the future," Lynn said.

Social Tables is the typical Infer customer a young, fast-adapting company that is looking for ways to use technology to save money and move quickly. "One less person means more decisions in a rapid manner," Lynn said.

Getting more-established companies to use the software is challenging, said Singh, who previously worked at Alphabet's Google. About 25 percent of Infer's customers have been around 10 years or more.

"The biggest bottleneck to machine learning is trust," he said. As a result, finding the "hero CEO" who will tell their shareholders they are trimming a sales team to rely on a black box is difficult. "If we can create these technologies that build trust I am very confident we will be able to leverage that in a new way," said Singh.

From baggage carousels to shifting stages at a rock concert, a motor made by SEW-Eurodrive Inc. is probably the workhorse making things move.

Some of the most efficient manufacturing of precision casing and gearing this German company produces happens in a bustling plant on Old Spartanburg Highway in Lyman, South Carolina. Eighty percent of the plant's production is exported.

In 2000, there were no robots on the factory floor. Now there is one robot for every human, most made by Japan's Fanuc Corp.

The infusion of automation into the plant didn't push out a single worker. Robots added scale. The plant will produce 500,000 components this year, up from 78,000 in 1999. Total staff is up just 6 percent, to 148 people.

The plant is so lean that the humans are having a difficult time keeping track of all that robots need and do. Call it a robot saturation point.

The next big boost in productivity is likely to come from an unexpected place digital information, managers here said.

SEW Eurodrive is looking for a system to feed data from its production machinery into a computer dashboard that gives operators a real-time look at plant performance rather than scurrying around with clipboards.

"If we can make that product a little faster without jeopardizing quality or safety, then we win," said Melvin Story, a supervisor at the plant.

If a robot is having trouble with a line of components, a human can be on the problem faster. If there is a maintenance program coming up, they can do it on time before something fails.

Melding big data with manufacturing is the next step for hundreds of companies, and it is challenging, said Bryan Tantzen, head of manufacturing and industry solutions at Cisco, the networking-technology giant.

"You have to connect these machines to transform them," he says. There are obstacles. Not all machines are loaded with sensors. Information-technology staff can be different from operational-technology staff. People responsible for robotics can view networks as insecure and unreliable.

"That OT/IT divide is a huge barrier to adoption," Tantzen said, and the infusion of new technology into manufacturing has slowed in recent years, partly due to cost-cutting.

Eventually, big data will be a reality on the plant floor, he said, because there is a constant need to push up profits and productivity. "I think it is really about to hit an inflection point and accelerate, and therefore drive productivity."

BMW's Spartanburg plant the largest BMW factory in the world by volume, sprawling over 6 million square feet is the highly-automated carmaker that technologists talk about.

The hype around robotics suggests a world where humans have little input in manufacturing. Talk to BMW managers, however, and it's all about getting the right mix of humans and machines in a world where customization and complexity are big challenges.

Almost every one of the 1,400 X-series SUVs rolling off the line here each day has been custom ordered by somebody. While about 1,600 robots weld, drill and paint auto bodies in steel cages, further down the line the cars are surrounded by humans adding this audio system or that trim. Humans are paying close attention to look, feel, smell, and even the sound of these cars to ensure BMW authenticity.

"You can build a car for months and months, and never build the same car twice," says Steve Wilson, a spokesman for BMW Spartanburg.

If there is one lesson from the team here, it's that robots move processes while humans improve them, according to Richard Morris, vice president of product integration, who has been with BMW in Spartanburg since 1993. Morris says technology is good for "transactional jobs." He adds: "There is something that we call transformation and that is something only a human can do."

"When you put automation out there you are just living in the status quo, but with people you are constantly improving the process and finding ways to make it better," Morris added. "Sometimes it is better to start with people."

Managers are constantly on the lookout for new ways to insert more automation. One recent addition: a small "co-bot," working next to humans that rolls protective foil on a door frame. Having a machine do this simple task several hundred times a day saves time and wear on human hands.

But the company's continuous improvement wall, a display where they show dozens of small refinements created by their team, doesn't feature a single robot.

"I have never been inspired to do more by a robot; I have never gotten any ideas on how to improve something on the shop floor from a robot," Morris said. "Little improvements every day add up to efficiency, and we are adding more cars and we are still hiring."

Excerpt from:

Slow march of the robots: Biggest barrier to automation is trust - The Providence Journal

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Remote Access: Widespread but Still Evolving – Automation World

Posted: at 2:07 am

Whether taking a walk down the hall or hopping a flight to some far-flung destination, monitoring plant operations or large assets in the field has traditionally been an on-site role. Thanks to the emergence of remote access technologies, however, the need to be physically present to problem solve or monitor operations is fast becoming a thing of the past. Despite companies increasing level of comfort with remote access in general, they remain slow to expand usage into more sophisticated areas, including predictive maintenance applications enabled by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

A recent Automation World survey confirms that remote access is no longer a fledgling technology embraced by a limited number of early pioneers. Almost three quarters of survey respondents (72 percent) are employing remote access technologies to gain entre to plant equipment and data while off site. Not surprisingly, the same number of respondents have multiple plant locations, which in part explains their interest in remote access technologies as a way to keep tabs on distributed operations. Among those who have yet to implement remote access technology, 46 percent say they plan to do so; the other 54 percent, however, say their companies do not permit it.

Despite a small amount of reticence, remote access technology is not a novel application. About 40 percent of the companies responding to our survey have had remote access capabilities in place for industrial applications for longer than five years; an additional 31 percent have been using the technology for one to five years.

Overall, manufacturers are making more liberal use of remote access functionality, but usage is highly varied depending on industry, according to Matt Wells, general manager of automation software for GE Digital. Vertical market segments such as wind, water, power transmission and marine, for example, are far more likely to invest in the technology compared with traditional manufacturers, which still tend to be more plant-centric. Anyone dealing with distributed fleets has a strong demand to be able to see, manage or control it from a remote spot, he explains. It all comes down to the difficulty of accessing that remote asset.

Going mobile Increased demand for remote access is inextricably tied to the rise of mobile devices, which are now ubiquitous among operators and other plant floor personnel. The whole concept of mobility gives operators the freedom to monitor devices or collect usage data on equipment without being physically present or tethered to a specific programmable logic controller (PLC) and human-machine interface (HMI) on the plant floor.

All [remote access] solutions give operators complete situational awareness to everything thats going on with the factory floor from wherever they arethats whats picked up steam these last 18 months, says Matt Newton, director of technical marketing at Opto 22. It lets an operator virtually be present in their factory without actually having to physically be there to look at the process.

Customers operating a wind turbine farm, for example, can monitor the speeds of the turbines and the amount of electricity being produced, and even perform some basic controls like turning turbines on and off based on market pricing, Newton explains. In another example, a food manufacturer can keep tabs on a refrigeration system remotely to avoid the nightmare scenario of frozen foods melting over the weekend because there was no on-site visibility into the system. All around, the concept of connectivity is tapping into information you didnt have access to before, he says.

According to our survey, the most prevalent use case for remote access is for maintenance, repair, troubleshooting and diagnostic applications, cited by 60 percent of respondents. Production monitoring is next in line at 44 percent, and 26 percent of respondents are leveraging the technology to support manufacturing intelligence applications for plant management and executives.

Though companies are actively embracing remote access, few anticipate an expanded role for the technology any time soon, the survey found. Beyond their current use, respondents said future plans call for putting remote access to work for pretty much the same types of tasks: maintenance, repair, troubleshooting and diagnostics (36 percent); production monitoring (33 percent); and manufacturing intelligence (26 percent). About 22 percent of respondents said they are already maximizing usage of the technology.

Given the most popular applications, the primary users of remote access technologies remain plant operators, engineers and technicians, with 65 percent of respondents saying those positions are involved at their sites. Plant management was another healthy sized user with 37 percent of respondents adding them to the list, while third-party engineers (24 percent) and corporate management (22 percent) made up the rest of the user base.

For the most part, manufacturers are leveraging remote access to deliver more flexibility to personnel and save costs. Two of the primary motivators for the technology are to reduce the time and expense involved in physically deploying workers to a site for problem resolution (cited by 60 percent of survey respondents) and to reduce downtime (53 percent). Manufacturers are also tapping the technology to improve knowledge of production operations and provide better insight into equipment conditions (42 percent each).

One of the primary drivers is eliminating travel costs, says Keith Blodorn, director of the wireless program at ProSoft Technology, which provides industrial automation connectivity solutions. ProSoft Connect is a cloud-native platform designed to simplify secure remote access to automation systems. One of our customers recently had to fly out to a place thats hard to get to, and the plane ticket cost $1,500 at the last minute. They got there, plugged into the PLC, found the problem in 10 minutes, but couldnt get a return flight for three days. That showcases a tangible value for remote access.

In such cases, remote access delivers far better labor utilization, GEs Wells notes. Instead of each plant functioning as a self-sustaining entity with a dedicated staff of automation experts, manufacturers can parlay a single expert across multiple locations. In the case of extremely remote locations, remote access can substitute for dedicated experts to support unmanned operations. As cost pressures increase, local engineering staff can log in remotely and get the data they need to provide relevant advice to fix and improve things, he says.

Moreover, the ability to tap into a remote site to gain access to critical data furnishes manufacturers with a larger data set for analyzing plant performance. With remote access and the ability to bring data up into a centralized data store, you gain greater insight into whats working well and whats not and can start to identify things that arent obvious in a single plant, but that you can see in the context of multiple plants, Wells says. GE Digitals Predix platform is built around the whole framework of remote connectivity, he adds, with analysis and optimization applications built on top, including those assembled into its asset performance management (APM) suite.

Though 34 percent of survey respondents are building their own remote access systemsprimarily web access to SCADA and HMI systemsa growing number (41 percent) are leveraging outside suppliers like GE Digital and others as they integrate expanded remote access capabilities into their product suites. In terms of top suppliers of remote access technologies, Rockwell Automation was the dominant vendor cited by survey respondents with 25 percent, followed by Siemens (18 percent), Schneider Electric (13 percent), ABB (11 percent), Honeywell (9 percent), GE Digital (8 percent) and a long list of others.

Next stop: IIoT-enabled predictive maintenance The bulk of survey respondents have yet to put IIoT-enabled predictive maintenance applications on their dockets. But automation providers are expanding their portfolios in this area nonetheless, anticipating plenty of future demand. Beckhoff Automation, for example, recently released its ultra compact C6015 industrial PC, specifically geared for remote access applications. Emerson Automation Solutions DeltaV Mobile app allows process engineers and plant operators and managers to receive real-time alarm notifications and remotely monitor their processes from wherever they are located.

Moving forward, companies like Rockwell and GE Digital will lead manufacturers into predictive maintenance applications by leveraging remote access capabilities along with predictive analytics tools and IIoT platforms. Most companies starting down that path have high-impact assets that put a manufacturer at significant risk due to downtime, notes Umair Masud, Rockwells product manager for consulting and security services.

If someone has a large compressor or rotating machinery and that asset is critical to the environment, they are absolutely invested in understanding the ways in which they can predict failure, Masud explains. Failure in any one of those areas can have a large monetary impact from a downtime or environmental perspective. In contrast, less complex environments like a food and beverage plant, for example, typically have redundancy built into their production lines, so predictive maintenance might not be as business critical, he adds.

Whether its IIoT-enabled predictive maintenance or more traditional remote access applications for production monitoring and support, security remains the most significant concern and primary roadblock for expanding remote access applications. You are playing with fire when you connect this stuff, says Opto 22s Newton. If youre connecting multimillion-dollar equipment to the Internet, its going to take a lot of educationits still a totally foreign concept to many.

Link:

Remote Access: Widespread but Still Evolving - Automation World

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