Monthly Archives: January 2020

Five Reasons to Go to Machine Learning Week 2020 – Machine Learning Times – machine learning & data science news – The Predictive Analytics Times

Posted: January 25, 2020 at 1:58 pm

When deciding on a machine learning conference, why go to Machine Learning Week 2020? This five-conference event May 31 June 4, 2020 at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas delivers brand-name, cross-industry, vendor-neutral case studies purely on machine learnings commercial deployment, and the hottest topics and techniques. In this video, Predictive Analytics World Founder Eric Siegel spills on the details and lists five reasons this is the most valuable machine learning event to attend this year.

Note: This article is based on the transcript of a special episode of The Dr. Data Show click here to view.

In this article, I give five reasons that Machine Learning Week May 31 June 4, 2020 at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas is the most valuable machine learning event to attend this year. MLW is the largest annual five-conference blow-out part of the Predictive Analytics World conference series, of which I am the founder.

First, some background info. Your business needs machine learning to thrive and even just survive. You need it to compete, grow, improve, and optimize. Your team needs it, your boss demands it, and your career loves machine learning.

And so we bring you Predictive Analytics World, the leading cross-vendor conference series covering the commercial deployment of machine learning. By design, PAW is where to meet the whos who and keep up on the latest techniques.

This June in Vegas, Machine Learning Week brings together five different industry-focused events: PAW Business, PAW Financial, PAW Industry 4.0, PAW Healthcare, and Deep Learning World. This is five simultaneous two-day conferences all happening alongside one another at Caesars Palace in Vegas. Plus, a diverse range of full-day training workshops, which take place in the days just before and after.

Machine Learning Week delivers brand-name, cross-industry, vendor-neutral case studies purely on machine learning deployment, and the hottest topics and techniques.

This mega event covers all the bases for both senior-level expert practitioners as well as newcomers, project leaders, and executives. Depending on the topic, sessions and workshops are either demarcated as the Expert/practitioner level, or for All audiences. So, you can bring your team, your supervisor, and even the line-of-business managers you work with on model deployment. About 60-70% of attendees are on the hands-on practitioner side, but, as you know, successful machine learning deployment requires deep collaboration between both sides of the equation.

PAW and Deep Learning World also takes place in Germany, and Data Driven Government takes place in Washington DC but this article is about Machine Learning Week, so see predictiveanalyticsworld.com for details about the others.

Here are the five reasons to go.

Five Reasons to Go to Machine Learning Week June 2020 in Vegas

1) Brand-name case studies

Number one, youll access brand-name case studies. At PAW, youll hear directly from the horses mouth precisely how Fortune 500 analytics competitors and other companies of interest deploy machine learning and the kind of business results they achieve. More than most events, we pack the agenda as densely as possible with named case studies. Each day features a ton of leading in-house expert practitioners who get things done in the trenches at these enterprises and come to PAW to spill on the inside scoop. In addition, a smaller portion of the program features rock star consultants, who often present on work theyve done for one of their notable clients.

2) Cross-industry coverage

Number two, youll benefit from cross-industry coverage. As I mentioned, Machine Learning Week features these five industry-focused events. This amounts to a total of eight parallel tracks of sessions.

Bringing these all together at once fosters unique cross-industry sharing, and achieves a certain critical mass in expertise about methods that apply across industries. If your work spans industries, Machine Learning Week is one-stop shopping. Not to mention that convening the key industry figures across sectors greatly expands the networking potential.

The first of these, PAW Business, itself covers a great expanse of business application areas across many industries. Marketing and sales applications, of course. And many other applications in retail, telecommunications, e-commerce, non-profits, etc., etc.

The track topics of PAW Business 2020

PAW Business is a three-track event with track topics that include: analytics operationalization & management i.e., the business side core machine learning methods and advanced algorithms i.e., the technical side innovative business applications covered as case studies, and a lot more.

PAW Financial covers machine learning applications in banking including credit scoring insurance applications, fraud detection, algorithmic trading, innovative approaches to risk management, and more.

PAW Industry 4.0 and PAW Healthcare are also entire universes unto themselves. You can check out the details about all four of these PAWs at predictiveanalyticsworld.com.

And the newer sister event Deep Learning World has its own website, deeplearningworld.com. Deep learning is the hottest advanced form of machine learning with astonishing, proven value for large-signal input problems, such as image classification for self-driving cars, medical image processing, and speech recognition. These are fairly distinct domains, so Deep Learning World does well to complement the four Predictive Analytics World events.

3) Pure-play machine learning content

Number three, youll get pure-play machine learning content. PAWs agenda is not watered down with much coverage of other kinds of big data work. Instead, its ruthlessly focused specifically on the commercial application of machine learning also known as predictive analytics. The conference doesnt cover data science as a whole, which is a much broader and less well-defined area, that, for example, can include standard business intelligence reporting and such. And we dont cover AI per se. Artificial intelligence is at best a synonym for machine learning that tends to over-hype, or at worst an outright lie that promises mythological capabilities.

4) Hot new machine learning practices

Number four, youll learn the latest and greatest, the hottest new machine learning practices. Now, we launched PAW over a decade ago, so far delivering value to over 14,000 attendees across more than 60 events. To this day, PAW remains the leading commercial event because we keep up with the most valuable trends.

For example, Deep Learning World, which launched more recently in 2018 covers deep learnings commercial deployment across industry sectors. This relatively new form of neural networks has blossomed, both in buzz and in actual value. As I mentioned, it scales machine learning to process, for example, complex image data.

And what had been PAW Manufacturing for some years has now changed its name to PAW Industry 4.0. As such, the event now covers a broader area of inter-related work applying machine learning for smart manufacturing, the Internet of Things (IoT), predictive maintenance, logistics, fault prediction, and more.

In general, machine learning continues to widen its adoption and apply in new, innovative ways across sectors in marketing, financial risk, fraud detection, workforce optimization, and healthcare. PAW keeps up with these trends and covers todays best practices and the latest advanced modeling methods.

5) Vendor-neutral content

And finally, number five, youll access vendor-neutral content. PAW isnt run by an analytics vendor and the speakers arent trying to sell you on anything but good ideas. PAW speakers understand that vendor-neutral means those in attendance must be able to implement the practices covered and benefit from the insights delivered without buying any particular analytics product.

During the event, some vendors are permitted to deliver short presentations during a limited minority of demarcated sponsored sessions. These sessions often are also substantive and of great interest. In fact, you can access all the sponsors and tap into their expertise at will in the exhibit hall, where theyre set up for just that purpose.

By the way, if youre an analytics vendor yourself, check out PAWs various sponsorship opportunities. Our events bring together a great crowd of practitioners and decision makers.

Summary Five Reasons to Go

1) Brand-name case studies

2) Cross-industry coverage

3) Pure-play machine learning content

4) Hot new machine learning practices

5) Vendor-neutral content

and those are the reasons to come to Machine Learning Week: brand-name, cross-industry, vendor-neutral case studies purely on machine learnings commercial deployment, and the hottest topics and techniques.

Machine Learning Week not only delivers unique knowledge-gaining opportunities, its also a universal meeting place the industrys premier networking event. It brings together the whos who of machine learning and predictive analytics, the greatest diversity of expert speakers, perspectives, experience, viewpoints, and case studies.

This all turns the normal conference stuff into a much richer experience, including the keynotes, expert panels, and workshop days, as well as opportunities to network and talk shop during the lunches, coffee breaks, and reception.

I encourage you to check out the detailed agenda see all the speakers, case studies, and advanced methods covered. Each of the five conferences has its own agenda webpage, or you can also view the entire five-conference, eight-track mega-agenda at once. This view pertains if youre considering registering for the full Machine Learning Week pass, or if youll be attending along with other team members in order to divide and conquer.

Visit our website to see all these details, register, and sign up for informative event updates by email.

Or to learn more about the field in general, check out our Predictive Analytics Guide, our publication The Machine Learning Times, which includes revealing PAW speaker interviews, and, episodes of this show, The Dr. Data Show which, by the way, is generally about the field of machine learning in general, rather than about our PAW events.

This article is based on a transcript from The Dr. Data Show.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL EPISODE

About the Dr. Data Show. This new web series breaks the mold for data science infotainment, captivating the planet with short webisodes that cover the very best of machine learning and predictive analytics. Click here to view more episodes and to sign up for future episodes of The Dr. Data Show.

About the Author

Eric Siegel, Ph.D., founder of the Predictive Analytics Worldand Deep Learning World conference series and executive editor ofThe Machine Learning Times, makes the how and why of predictive analytics (aka machine learning) understandable and captivating. He is the author of the award-winning bookPredictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, the host of The Dr. Data Show web series, a former Columbia University professor, and a renowned speaker, educator, and leader in the field. Follow him at @predictanalytic.

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Adventures With Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning – Toolbox

Posted: at 1:57 pm

Since October of last year I have had the opportunity to work with an startup working on automated machine learning and I thought that I would share some thoughts on the experience and the details of what one might want to consider around the start of a journey with a data scientist in a box.

Ill start by saying that machine learning and artificial intelligence has almost forced itself into my work several times in the past eighteen months, all in slightly different ways.

The first brush was back in June 2018 when one of the developers I was working with wanted to demonstrate to me a scoring model for loan applications based on the analysis of some other transactional data that indicated loans that had been previously granted. The model had no explanation and no details other than the fact that it allowed you to stitch together a transactional dataset which it assessed using a nave Bayes algorithm. We had a run at showing this to a wider audience but the palate for examination seemed low and I suspect that in the end the real reason was we didnt have real data and only had a conceptual problem to be solved.

The second go was about six months later when another colleague in the same team came up with a way to classify data sets and in fact developed a flexible training engine and data tagging approach to determining whether certain columns in data sets were likely to be names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. On face value you would think this to be something simple but in reality, it is of course only as good as the training data and in this instance we could easily confuse the system and the data tagging with things like social security numbers that looked like phone numbers, postcodes that were simply numbers and ultimately could be anything and so on. Names were only as good as the locality from which the names training data was sourced and cities, towns. Streets and provinces all proved to most work ok but almost always needed region-specific training data. At any rate, this method of classifying contact data for the most part met the rough objectives of the task at hand and so we soldiered on.

A few months later I was called over to a developers desk and asked for my opinion on a side project that one of the senior developers and architects had been working on. The objective was ambitious but impressive. The solution had been built in response to three problems in the field. The first problem to be solved was decoding why certain records were deemed to be related to one another when with the naked eye they seemed to not be, or vice versa. While this piece didnt involve any ML per se, the second part of the solution did, in that it self-configured thousands of combinations of alternative fuzzy matching criteria to determine an optimal set of duplicate record matching rules.

This was understandably more impressive and practically understandable almost self-explanatory. This would serve as a great utility for a consultant, a data analyst or a relative layperson to find explainability in how potential duplicate records were determined to have a relationship. This was specifically important because it immediately could provide value to field services personnel and clients. In addition, the developer had cunningly introduced a manual matching option that allowed a user to evaluate two records and make a decision through visual assessment as to whether two records could potentially be considered related to one another.

In some respects what was produced was exactly the way that I like to see products produced. The field describes the problem; the product management organization translates that into more elaborate stories and looks for parallels in other markets, across other business areas and for ubiquity. Once those initial requirements have been gathered it is then to engineering and development to come up with a prototype that works toward solving the issue.

The more experienced the developer of course the more comprehensive the result may be and even the more mature the initial iteration may be. Product is then in a position to pitch the concept back at the field, to clients and a selective audience to get their perspective on the solution and how well it matches the for solving the previously articulated problem.

The challenge comes when you have a less tightly honed intent, a less specific message and a more general problem to solve and this comes now to the latest aspect of machine learning and artificial intelligence that I picked up.

One of the elements with dealing with data validation and data preparation is the last mile of action that you have in mind for that data. If your intent is as simple as one of, lets evaluate our data sources, clean them up and makes them suitable for online transaction processing then thats a very specific mission. You need to know what you want to evaluate, what benchmark you wish to evaluate them against and then have some sort of remediation plan for them so that they support the use case for which theyre intended say, supporting customer calls into a call centre. The only areas where you might consider artificial intelligence and machine learning for applicability in this instance might be for determining matches against the baseline but then the question is whether you simply have a Boolean decision or whether in fact, some sort of stack ranking is relevant at all. It could be argued either way, depending on the application.

When youre preparing data for something like a decision beyond data quality though, the mission is perhaps a little different. Effectively your goal may be to cut the cream of opportunities off the top of a pile of contacts, leads, opportunities or accounts. As such, you want to use some combination of traits within the data set to determine influencing factors that would determine a better (or worse) outcome. Here, linear regression analysis for scoring may be sufficient. The devil, of course, lies in the details and unless youre intimately familiar with the data and the proposition that youre trying to resolve for you have to do a lot of trial and error experimentation and validation. For statisticians and data scientists this is all very obvious and you could say, is a natural part of the work that they do. Effectively the challenge here is feature selection. A way of reducing complexity in the model that you will ultimately apply to the scoring.

The journey I am on right now with a technology partner, focuses on ways to actually optimise the features in a way that only the most necessary and optimised features will need to be considered. This, in turn, makes the model potentially simpler and faster to execute, particularly at scale. So while the regression analysis still needs to be done, determining what matters, what has significance and what should be retained vs discarded in terms of the model design, is being all factored into the model building in an automated way. This doesnt necessarily apply to all kinds of AI and ML work but for this specific objective it is perhaps more than adequate and one that doesnt require a data scientist to start delivering a rapid yield.

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Machine learning and eco-consciousness key business trends in 2020 – Finfeed

Posted: at 1:57 pm

In 2020, small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) are likely to focus more on supporting workers to travel and collaborate in ways that suit them, while still facing a clear economic imperative to keep costs under control.

This will likely involve increased use of technologies such as machine learning and automation to: help determine and enforce spending policies; ensure people travelling for work can optimise, track, and analyse their spend; and prioritise travel options that meet goals around environmental responsibility and sustainability.

Businesses that recognise and respond to these trends will be better-placed to save money while improving employee engagement and performance, according to SAP Concur.

Fabian Calle, General Manager, Small to Medium Business, ANZ, SAP Concur, said, As the new decade begins, the business environment will be subject to the same economic ups and downs seen in the previous decade. However, with new technologies and approaches, most businesses will be able to leverage automation and even artificial intelligence to smooth out those peaks and troughs.

SAP Concur has identified the top five 2020 predictions for SMBs, covering economics, technology, business, travel, the environment, diversity, and corporate social responsibility:

Calle said, 2020 will continue to drive significant developments as organisations of all sizes look to optimise efficiency and productivity through employee operations and satisfaction. Australian businesses need to be aware of these trends and adopt cutting edge technology to facilitate their workers need to travel and collaborate more effectively and with less effort.

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Research report investigates the Global Machine Learning In Finance Market 2019-2025 – WhaTech Technology and Markets News

Posted: at 1:57 pm

Machine Learning in Finance Market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2019-2025.

Machine Learning in Finance Market studies record 2019 gives certain records of primary players like producers, suppliers, vendors, traders, clients, traders and and so on Machine Learning in Finance Market report offers a professional and deep evaluation on the prevailing country of Machine Learning in Finance Market that consists of major types, major packages, information kind consist of ability, manufacturing, market share, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, boom rate, intake, import, export and etc. Enterprise chain, manufacturing procedure, price shape, advertising channel are also analyzed in this report.

The boom trajectory of the worldwide Machine Learning in Finance Market over the assessment period is shaped by way of several common and emerging regional and international developments, a granular assessment of which is offered in the research report. The study on reading the global Machine Learning in Finance Market dynamics takes a critical examine the business regulatory framework, technological advances in related industries, and the strategic avenues.

The value of machine learning in finance is becoming more apparent by the day. As banks and other financial institutions strive to beef up security, streamline processes, and improve financial analysis, ML is becoming the technology of choice.

The key players covered in this study:Ignite Ltd,Yodlee,Trill A.I.,MindTitan,Accenture,ZestFinance...

Request for Sample with TOC@www.researchtrades.com/requestle/1678067

Market segment by Type, the product can be split into;Supervised Learning,Unsupervised Learning,Semi Supervised Learning,Reinforced Leaning

Market segment by Application, split into:Banks,Securities Company,Others

Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers:United States,Europe,China,Japan,Southeast Asia,India,Central & South America

The study objectives of this report are:*To analyze global Machine Learning in Finance status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.*To present the Machine Learning in Finance development in United States, Europe and China.

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Amazon.com: Freedom: A Novel (9780374158460): Jonathan …

Posted: at 1:57 pm

Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom, like his previous one, The Corrections, is a masterpiece of American fiction . . . Freedom is a still richer and deeper work--less glittering on its surface but more confident in its method . . . Like all great novels, Freedom does not just tell an engrossing story. It illuminates, through the steady radiance of its author's profound moral intelligence, the world we thought we knew. Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times Book Review (cover review)

Writing in prose that is at once visceral and lapidary, Mr. Franzen shows us how his characters strive to navigate a world of technological gadgetry and ever-shifting mores, how they struggle to balance the equation between their expectations of life and dull reality, their political ideals and mercenary personal urges. He proves himself as adept at adolescent comedy as he is at grown-up tragedy; as skilled at holding a mirror to the world his people inhabit day by dreary day as he is at limning their messy inner lives . . . Mr. Franzen has written his most deeply felt novel yet--a novel that turns out to be both a compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

[Freedom is] a work of total genius: a reminder both of why everyone got so excited about Franzen in the first place and of the undeniable magic--even today, in our digital end-times--of the old-timey literary novel . . . Few modern novelists rival Franzen in that primal skill of creating life, of tricking us into believing that a text-generated set of neural patterns, a purely abstract mind-event, is in fact a tangible human being that we can love, pity, hate, admire, and possibly even run into someday at the grocery store. His characters are so densely rendered--their mental lives sketched right down to the smallest cognitive micrograins--that they manage to bust through the art-reality threshold: They hit us in the same place that our friends and neighbors and classmates and lovers do. This is what makes Franzen's books such special event. Sam Anderson, New York Magazine

The Great American Novel. Esquire

Epic. Vanity Fair

Exhilarating . . . Gripping . . . Moving . . . On a level with The Great Gatsby [and] Gone With the Wind. Craig Seligman, Bloomberg

A page turner that engages the mind. Dan Cryer, Newsday

Consuming and extraordinarily moving. David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times

It's refreshing to see a novelist who wants to engage the questions of our time in the tradition of 20th-century greats like John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis . . . [This] is a book you'll still be thinking about long after you've finished reading it. Patrick Condon, Associated Press

Deeply moving and superbly crafted . . . It's such a full novel, rich in description, broad in its reach and full of wry observations. Bob Hoover, Pittsburg Post-Gazette

Freedom, his new book, and The Corrections, its predecessor, are at the same time engrossing sagas and scathing satires, and both books are funny, sad, cranky, revelatory, hugely ambitious, deeply human and, at times, truly disturbing. Together, they provide a striking and quite possibly enduring portrait of America in the years on either side of the turn of the 21st century . . . His writing is so gorgeous . . . Franzen is one of those exceptional writers whose works define an era and a generation, and his books demand to be read. Harper Barnes, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A tour de force . . . one of the finest novelists of his generation. Glenn C. Altschuler, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Freedom is a bracingly earnest, ethically serious psychological epic that introduces and exploits its characters' mistakes and foibles, then challenges itself to discover myriad ways to eventually forgive them their trespasses . . . A highly readable triumph of conventional realism . . . Addictive. Akiva Gottlieb, The National

A lavishly entertaining account of a family at war with itself, and a brilliant dissection of the dissatisfactions and disappointments of contemporary American life . . . Compelling . . . Freedom, though frequently funny, is ultimately tender: its emotional currency is both the pain and the pleasure that that word implies . . . A rare pleasure, an irresistible invitation to binge-read . . . That it also grapples with a fundamental dilemma of modern middle-class America--namely: Is it really still OK to spend your life asserting your unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, when the rest of the world is in such a state?--is what makes it something wonderful. If Freedom doesn't qualify as a Great American Novel for our time, then I don't know what would . . . The reason to celebrate him is not that he is doing something new but that he is doing something old, presumed dead--and doing it brilliantly. Freedom bids for a place alongside the great achievements of his predecessors, not his contemporaries; it belongs on the same shelf as John Updike's Rabbit, Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, Philip Roth's American Pastoral. It is the first Great American Novel of the post-Obama era. Benjamin Secher, Telegraph (U. K.)

A literary genius for our time . . . An extraordinary work . . . This is simply on a different plane from other contemporary fiction . . . A novel of our time . . . Demands comparison rather with Saul Bellow's Herzog. . . a modern classic . . . Freedom is the novel of the year, and the century. Jonathan Jones, Guardian (U.K.)

A triumph . . . A pleasure to read. Michael H. Miller, The New York Observer

Brilliant . . . Epic . . . An extraordinary stylist. Ron Charles, The Washington Post

A surprisingly moving and even hopeful epic. Heller McAlpin, NPR

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Freedom Ruck: 106 miles of sacrifice and service – Military Times

Posted: at 1:56 pm

RICHMOND, Va. A group of active duty service members, veterans and family members are redefining what it means to walk a mile in someone elses shoes.

Gathered at the Virginia War Memorial early Jan. 7, this small community embarked on a journey that pushed them far beyond their comfort zone, all in an effort to raise support and awareness for a cause that hits close to home.

Freedom Ruck, as its called, takes marchers approximately 106 miles from Richmond to the Arlington National Cemetery.

The Freedom Ruck

For anyone who has served in the military, the words ruck march might remind them of the last must-pass events at basic training. For Vic Wise, however, ruck marching has served as a way to honor service members past and present.

I come from a military family, explained Wise. I have seen the physical and emotional toll men and women in uniform face both at home and overseas.

Inspired by their sacrifice and their commitment to serve, Wise decided he had to do something.

Ive always wanted to give back in a way that was impactful, but I never really knew where to start, said Wise. I never served, but both my dad and my brother were in the Army.

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Seven years ago, while running past the Virginia War Memorial, it hit him.

The sun was rising over the river and everything was calm, said Wise. I had an epiphany of This is where I need to start.

Wise determined he wanted to do something over the course of two days to accurately showcase the physical and mental sacrifice men and women in uniform face on a daily basis.

I wanted to do something no one has ever done before, said Wise. I thought, What if I took my ruck, attach an American flag to it and ruck from the Virginia War Memorial all the way to Arlington National Cemetery?

Wise did the research the entire journey would take him approximately 106 miles up Route 1.

We coined the name Freedom Ruck to honor those who have sacrificed for their country, said Wise. This wasnt about me. This was about them.

Wise took to social media to share plans of his upcoming journey, even catching the attention of country music star Brantley Gilbert.

Brantley was gracious enough to share about the ruck on social media, said Wise. That really helped spread the word of Freedom Ruck.

On Jan. 10, 2014, nearly two weeks after his initial run, Wise stood on the steps of the Virginia War Memorial, accompanied by a small group of friends and family to see him off.

They didnt really understand what I was doing, laughed Wise. But I was thankful for their support.

Despite a constant flow of rain and wind, Wise pushed north, stopping every so often to refuel and to change his socks.

Family members updated followers on social media of Wises progress while passing cars honked their support.

On Jan. 12, an exhausted Wise made it to Arlington National Cemetery.

Not only did Wise complete the 106-mile journey from Richmond to Arlington, but he also met his goal of completing the ruck in under 48 hours.

His final time was 47 hours and 45 minutes.

After all was said and done, we ended up raising about $10,000, which we donated to The Navy SEAL Foundation, explained Wise.

The foundation, which provides support and assistance to the Naval Special Warfare community and its families, brought Wises mission to honor service members full circle.

In the days following the ruck, Wise received an outpouring of support, including offers to ruck alongside him should he complete the 106-mile trek again.

Initially, I thought this was just going to be a one-time thing, admitted Wise. So many people wanted to be a part of Freedom Ruck that it turned into an annual event.

For the seventh year in a row, Wise was back at the Virginia War Memorial. This time he was accompanied by a group of 15-20 marchers, brought together by their military and law enforcement ties.

In the crowd was U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Hunter Kiser, a recruiter stationed in Lynchburg, Virginia.

This is my second year participating in the Freedom Ruck, said Kiser. Ive known Vic for years, but Ive never been stationed close enough to really take part until now.

While many of the participants tap out after a certain point, Kiser says the goal is always to finish.

Last year I did about 25 miles and this year I got up to about mile 48 before I had to call it, explained Kiser. But Ive gone into each year hoping to conquer all 106 miles.

For 48 miles, Kiser and the other participants shared stories of their military experiences, their families and offered life advice for those seeking it.

For the first 30 miles, there was enough people to jump around and get to know each other, said Kiser. But when all you have are the flashing lights of the escort in front of you in the middle of the night, you need music or books on tape to keep your mind occupied.

With just about one week after Freedom Ruck 2020, Kiser already has his sights on Freedom Ruck 2021.

Its already written on my mirror: Freedom Ruck 2021, shared Kiser. I see it every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to bed. Ill be ready.

The impact

Since stepping off for his first Freedom Ruck in 2014, Freedom Ruck has raised nearly $55,000 for The Navy SEAL foundation.

The foundations focus is to cover outside what the government will cover should a teammate become ill or injured, explained Wise.

In particular, the foundation hosts an annual Gold Star Family retreat for families dealing with the loss of loved ones.

It allows these families to come together and heal, said Wise. Its providing families with the support they need.

In the years following the launch of Freedom Ruck, Wise has heard directly from families benefiting from The Navy SEAL Foundation. From emails and letters, to hugs and words of thanks, Wise says he uses the support he has received as motivation during his rucks.

Ive had Gold Star Families reach out and share about what the foundation has done for their families, said Wise. This is why were out here and why we do what we do.

To learn more about Freedom Ruck and how you can support the Navy SEAL Foundation, visit http://www.freedomruck.com.

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Freedom teams hit running clock vs. Saint on road – Morganton News Herald

Posted: at 1:56 pm

HICKORY Led by three players with 14 or more points apiece, the consensus No. 1 Freedom girls basketball team never trailed in a 66-17 road win over last-place St. Stephens on Friday in Northwestern 3A/4A Conference play.

Freedom set a tone early in the halfcourt on offense as well as on the glass, with 10 first-period points in the lane. Junior forward Adair Garrison (15 points) scored six of the teams first eight, and all four starting guards grabbed rebounds in the opening 4 minutes, led by Jayda Glass three.

Garrison capped the period with an offensive rebound and assist to Josie Hise on a backcut, and the Lady Patriots (18-0, 7-0) led 16-8.

The guests then got the fullcourt press rolling and blitzed the Indians to the tune of 27-3 in the second period to go up 43-11 at the half, and by the third quarter, the game hit the mercy-rule running clock.

We were able to turn the pressure up on defense there and got some turnovers, Freedom coach Amber Reddick said. We hadnt been super happy with the press lately, but I thought we did a good job squeezing the middle and with coverages.

Freedoms Danisha Hemphill tied Garrison for team-high honors with 15 points, Blaikley Crooks added 14, Christena Rhone scored eight and Hise finished with seven.

Despite this being Reddicks second team in the last five seasons to have rolled to a lengthy unbeaten streak to start the year the 2015-16 state title version holds the countys lone perfect season in the sport she said the sky wont fall if they lose one, and that the unblemished record isnt the primary focus.

Were talking about things like energy and focus for four quarters, Reddick said. We know well get the best shot from everyone every night. And of course, everyone would like to go undefeated, but we have to keep in mind every game is one step toward our goal and keep finding ways to improve our effort and concentration.

Freedom 103, St. Stephens 64

The Patriots (17-1, 6-1) led 27-5 at the end of the opening period and didnt stop there, posting 24 points or more in each quarter to hit the century mark for the second time this year, both against Saint.

It was 55-22 at halftime, and the contest hit the running clock with about 1:30 to go.

A season-best eight Patriots scored eight or more points, led by seniors Bradley Davis and James Freemans 20 and 18 respectively. Quentin Rice joined them in double figures with 12, Nick Johnson and Ben Tolbert scored nine each and Qualique Garner, Jayden Birchfield and Kason Ledford added eight apiece.

One through 13 tonight, everyone made quality contributions, Freedom coach Clint Zimmerman said. As a group, we defended well at the fullcourt and halfcourt levels. We rebounded it well on both ends and never had a lapse in our energy.

Two plays that really stand out came late in the game, Saiveon Pitman laying out for a loose ball at halfcourt and Kason Ledford taking a charge late when the game was already out of reach. It was really enjoyable tonight watching everyone enjoy the successes of their teammates more than their own.

Freedom hosts Hickory, whose boys and girls both occupy second place in the NWC, on Tuesday.

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Mike Pompeo: Trump ‘America first’ policy creating ‘hemisphere of freedom’ – Washington Times

Posted: at 1:56 pm

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a major speech in Florida Thursday that President Trumps foreign policy puts America first, but stressed that the mantra actually means helping oppressed people in other nations fight for freedom and democracy especially in the Western Hemisphere.

Its time to have our hemisphere, the place we are today, be a hemisphere of freedom, Mr. Pompeo told a supportive crowd that interrupted him often with applause, and greeted him with chants of U.S.A., U.S.A, U.S.A., at Sumter County Fairgrounds in Bushnell, Florida.

The speech came on the heels of multi-nation tour of South America and the Caribbean this week by the secretary of state. It also comes against a backdrop of decline among left-leaning political movements in Latin America and the election of pro-capitalist conservative governments in several nations of the region.

Mr. Pompeo pushed back against Trump administration critics, who claim many nations around the world have distanced themselves from the United States over the past three years in frustration at Mr. Trumps unpredictable style and often temperamental rhetorical posturing.

The world knows what America stands for, Mr. Pompeo said. It is true now more, frankly, than ever, and people around the world who love liberty, who love democracy and love freedom, are with us. They stand with us.

While Trump critics accuse the administration of standing up for human rights in some cases but aligning with governments accused of violating human rights in others, Mr. Pompeo portrayed the administrations foreign policy as realist and cut and dry.

The America first approach means protecting America and protecting freedom, he said, asserting that people around the world love that.

You know what else we stand for and the world loves? They love that we stand for religious liberty, the secretary of state said. Christians, Jews, Muslims doesnt matter. You can believe what you want here in America, or you can choose not to believe at all. Never in the world has that right been recognized it is as it is here in the United States of America.

We know that people all across the world should be free to worship their own god, Mr. Pompeo added. I raise it in every meeting. President Trump knows this. The world loves it.

They love, too, that we stand for freedom and markets and capitalism and the right to take risks and to work hard, to raise your family. They love capitalism not that S word, he said, apparently referring to socialism.

With regard to socialism in the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Pompeo said the Trump administration is committed to advancing freedom in Cuba and working to restore democracy in Venezuela.

These are tyrannies, he said, referring to the Castro government in Havana and the embattled socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro the ouster of whom has been a foreign policy priority of the administration for the past two years.

These are leaders that have destroyed countless lives. Now some 6 million people have fled Venezuela, only because this madman Maduro destroyed their ability even make a living for their families, to take care of their kids, Mr. Pompeo said. Thats not right, its not decent, and America will stand with the Venezuelan people until we can have a free and fair election and restore democracy to that once proud nation.

While he did not specify whether such a commitment might mean the Trump administration would support a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, Mr. Pompeo asserted that his mission as secretary of state is really, really simple: to make the world safer, so we dont have to send our young men and women off to fight.

In President Trumps administration, we stare at the world as it really is, as it actually is, the reality on the ground, he told the crowd in Florida. The same way you do each and every day in your lives. You cant pretend, you cant wish you have to work within the world in which we live, in which it exists.

The good news is, in spite of what you may read elsewhere that people dont like America, everywhere I go, I see a deep love for our country and for you, Mr. Pompeo said.

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HARRIET Shares the Story of Freedom – Patch.com

Posted: at 1:56 pm

On Bluray/DVD and Digital this week from director Kasi Lemmons and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is a story of the run for freedom with HARRIET.

Minty (Cynthia Erivo) is a young slave woman working on a plantation married to free man John Tubman (Zackary Momoh). Believing their time had come to be set free according to a prior agreement, Minty is upset to learn that the agreement won't be honored by plantation owner Edward Brodess (Mike Marunde). Angry that she even asked, Brodess orders her sold. Looking on is son Gideon (Joe Alwyn) who has known Minty since they were children.

When Minty asks God for answers, Gideon lets it be known that he also has no intention of honoring his grandfather's agreement. Knowing that she has no other choice if she is ever to have a life beyond the fields, Minty plans to make a run north. She also knows that leaving husband John behind will save his life.

She tells her mother and father goodbye and his final father order is to visit Reverend Green (Vondie Curtis-Hall) who gives Minty a mental map to freedom. Not far behind her is Gideon who is not about to let her go. When the two finally meet, it is on a bridge over a rushing river where she makes the ultimate decision.

Making her way north, she meets William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.) who takes notes of slaves who find freedom and asks Minty if she wants to give herself a new name for her new life. Choosing Harriet Tubman she meets Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monae) who helps her settle in safely and a job. For the first time, Harriet is free to come and go while making a wage without fear.

But Harriet can not forget her husband or family left on the plantation. She makes it clear to William that if she made it north, so could they. She proves all the nay-sayers wrong and so begins her effort to go back and forth from south to north taking as many as possible to freedom.

Gideon's father passes and now he is more obsessed with finding the girl he knows as Minty but Harriet isn't about to stop what she is doing or be stopped by anyone.

Erivo as Harriet portrays a woman who trusts in her faith and doesn't let what others think of her get in the way of her goal. Thinking she is being led one way, it becomes quickly clear that her life would be dedicated to helping others. Her speech in the company of Frederick Douglas is what cements the belief that her path is laid out before her with the Underground Railroad.

Alwyn as Gideon is obsessed with keeping Minty on the plantation, so much so that he's willing to promise her anything to make that happen. When she refuses his offer, Gideon starts a mission to do whatever it takes to get her back. Marude as Brodess is a plantation owner who isn't about to let one single person leave and teaches that behavior to his son Gideon.

Odom Jr. as Still is a man who does everything he can to help slaves who manage to get to Philadelphia. Keeping records, he fears for what Harriet is doing but that's not stopping her! Momoh as Tubman is a free man who is married to Minty as a slave. Believing that one day the agreement would be honored, insists that running is the way to go. His life would change as well when Harriet returns to help family.

Monae as Marie is the first woman in Harriet's life who teaches her what freedom means and how to fool anyone stopping her in the south. She is elegant and graceful and, more importantly, an owner of a business. Curtis-Hall is the Harriet's preacher who also becomes important in helping slaves fleeing the south.

Other cast include Daphne Reid as Miz Lucy, Clarke Peters as Ben Ross, Vanessa Calloway as Rit Boss, Omar J. Dorsey as Bigger Long, Henry Hall as Walter, Tim Guinee as Thomas Garrett, Nick Basta as Foxx, Joseph Anderson as Robert Ross, Antonio Bell as Henry Ross, CJ McBath as Junyah Ross, Alexis Louder as Jane, Tory Kittles as Frederick Douglas, and Jennifer Nettles as Eliza Brodess.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are film of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit http://www.uphe.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit http://www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

The Bonus Features include Deleted Scenes, Her Story, Becoming Harriet and Feature Commentary with Director and Co-Writer Kasi Lemmons.

HARRIET is a riveting story about a woman who defies the odds of slavery, survival and dangerous trips from south to north to free other slaves. Keeping it simple in the telling allows the viewer to become emotionally invested in understanding the life of Harriet.

This is the genre of film that can be an enormously beneficial teaching tool and hope that teachers will use it. It shows the human spirit and potential to change the wrongs of the society then and what can be accomplished now.

In the end - be free or die.

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How artistic freedom of expression shrinks in ‘new’ Egypt – Al-Monitor

Posted: at 1:56 pm

The Jan.25, 2011uprising that toppledPresident Hosni Mubarakunleashed acreative revolutionwith the spontaneous emergence of a variety of art forms:graffiti, street performances, underground music and satirical online videos.Much of the revolutionary art was aform of protestagainst social injustice and repression, but it also acted as avisual commentaryon the dramatic developments that were unfolding during that time of political turmoil.Relishing their newfound freedom, artists and musicians used their art to express grievances about "social wrongs"and urge action to redress them.

Nine years on, as the anniversary of the revolution approaches, there is hardly a trace of thecultural awakeningthat symbolized the freedom of expression in the "new"Egypt. An ongoingsecurity crackdownon dissent, in place since 2013, has targeted artists and musicians along with opposition and political figures, journalists and members of theLGBT community, stifling freedom of expression and putting a lid on provocative art and creativity.

Nearly all of the graffiti art that mushroomed on the walls in and around Mohamed Mahmoud Street in the wake of the revolution has beenwhitewashedand a large part of an iconicgraffiti wallon the same street has been torn down.As the authorities carry out extensiverenovation worksin downtown Cairo, they appear adamant to wipe out anyremnants of the revolution. Tahrir Square where the protesters had gathered is undergoing an overhaul its second since 2011.

Meanwhile, a number of artists who rose to prominence during the revolution, have paid a high price for expressing nonconformist ideas. Ganzeer, notorious for his street artlampooning the military,was forced to flee Egypt for the United States after he was branded "a terrorist"by the country's pro-government media in early 2014. His disputed poster on the Mohamed Mahmoud wall depicting a soldier standing amid a pile of skullslikely provoked the allegation, putting him at risk of arrest.

"In today'srestrictive environment, artists are no longer able to express their ideas freely; if they do, no galleryor art fair will agree to show their work," saidMohamed Abla, a painter and sculptor whose works touch upon political and social issues. "Artists are increasingly resorting to symbolism in their work; they are also having toself-censorfor fear of arrest," he told Al-Monitor. "This situation is unsustainable as Egyptian artists are not accustomed to being silencedthings will have to change."

Abla reminisced about the days when he and fellow artists could showcase their work at the volunteer-runAl-Fan MidanFestival (Art is a Public Square Festival), launched in the spring of2011. The festival wasinitially fundedby the Ministry of Culture but the funds quickly dried up, prompting organizers togather donationsinstead. For three consecutive years, a host ofcultural eventswere staged in public squares across the country under the Al-Fan Midan banner.

"The aim of the festival was to bring culture to the masses and educate the public about art. Organizers sought to attract the layman rather than art connoisseurs so as to spark interest in art," Abla said. "It was also meant to promote freedom of expression and protest all forms of censorship."

The public response was overwhelming with large crowds flocking to the squares to attend the performances or tour the art exhibits. But all that came to a shuddering halt in the summer of 2014, when thefestival was canceledtwice by the Egyptian authorities on the grounds that "the organizers did not have the right permits." An anti-protest law,passed in November 2013, criminalized such gatherings without a prior permit from the Interior Ministry, spelling the festival's end.

Abla now spends his time shuttling between his art studio in downtown Cairo and Fayoum, a city located southwest of Cairo, where he continues to organizeart workshopsat the Fayoum Arts Center, which he founded in 2006. He also oversees the running of theCaricature Museumthere, which he established in response to the 2005Prophet Muhammad cartoons controversy"to show that there are also caricatures in Egypt and they are political as well associally critical," according to a March 2010 interview with the artist published in Qantara.de.

The museum, the first of its kind in the Middle East, showcases an impressive collection of Egyptian cartoons, some dating back to the early 1920s "a treasure" that Abla has sought to preserve for future generations. While many of the cartoons poke fun at the woes of the society, there are none lampooning President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. It appears that Abla has to tread cautiously so as not to ruffle the feathers of the authorities. The arrests anddetention of a number of satiristsin recent years have sent a chilling message of zero tolerance for humor when the military, police or the president are the targets.

This was made clear right from the start of Sisi's rule when "Al-Bernameg," a satirical TV show,was suspendedafter an episode in which the host, Bassem Youssef, had joked about the "Sisi-mania" sweeping the country at the time. Bassem was accused ofdisturbing the peaceand security of the country in no less than 12 legal complaints filed against him, by pro-government citizens. He has since relocated to the United States and has been unable to return.

In December 2015, Amr Nohan, a law student, was handed a three-year prisonsentence for posting on Facebook a doctored image of Sisi wearingMickey Mouse ears.

It has not been smooth-sailing either for theunderground musicbands that shot to fame with their politically charged songs in the wake of the revolution. Rock bandCairokeewhose song "Sot el Horreya" ("Sound of Freedom") became the anthem of the revolution had several concerts called offin 2018 after tickets had sold out. The repeated cancellations prompted the group to shift its attention to international concerts abroad instead of staging local performances.

A committee formed in July 2018toregulate festivalsand issue permits for cultural events including music concerts. The new regulations alsomade it mandatory for event organizers to have a capital of no less than 500,000 Egyptian pounds ($31,700) and to provide all details about their event. Moreover, applications for permits can only be submitted in June each year.

"The new restrictions have made it exceedingly difficult to organize a concert as it takes a verylong time for the committee to issue the permits, and sometimes, those are never granted," Sherif Hawary, lead guitarist ofCairokee, told Al-Monitor. He believes the restrictions were placed in reaction to the Mashrou' Leilaconcert controversywhen at least seven concertgoers were arrested and detained for raising the rainbow flag at the concert. The government accused them of "inciting debauchery."The Lebanese alternative rock band Mashou' Leila, whose lead singer is gay,has since beenbanned from performingin Egypt.

The space for freedom of artistic expression has been shrinking under Sisi's rule. In 2017-18, two female singerswere detainedover their "racy" music videos; they were accused of inciting debauchery. Singer Sherine Abdel Wahab has twicefaced prosecution, once in November 2017 over a joke she made at a concert about the River Nile beingpolluted, and a second time earlier this month when she had said on stage, "Egypt doesnt deserve me." The legal complaints against her were filed by Samir Sabry, a pro-government lawyer notorious for filinglawsuits against celebrities.

Egyptian-American musician Nader Sadek wasdetainedfor four days in 2016 for his part in organizing a concert in which Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura would have played. In this case, the lawsuit was filed by Hani Shaker,head of the Musicians Syndicate, who claimed in a TV interview on Egypt's CBC channel that "devil worshippers" in weird clothing had turned up for the ill-fated event.

The detentions and prosecutions of artists is a far cry from the short-lived period of freedom in the early days of the revolution. Sadek painted a gloomy picture of the current situation for the arts. "Music and art have become dangerous business in Egypt,"he told Al-Monitor.

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