Monthly Archives: February 2020

Is it time to shut down the zoos? – The Guardian

Posted: February 6, 2020 at 5:47 pm

In a few days, a pair of two-year-old cheetahs, Saba and Nairo, will depart from the UK on a remarkable journey. The brothers will be taken from Howletts Wild Animal Park, in Kent, and flown to South Africa to begin a new life in the wild.

It will be the first time that cheetahs born in captivity have left the UK for rewilding in Africa, says Damian Aspinall, who runs Howletts. There are only about 7,000 cheetahs left on the planet and they are listed as vulnerable, he says. This reintroduction to a reserve in Mount Camdeboo, in south of the country is important because it will help to support the small population of cheetahs we have left in the wild.

And the process of releasing animals from his wildlife parks is likely to continue unabated, adds Aspinall. He now campaigns vigorously for a sharp acceleration in the return of all captive animals to the wild and, ultimately, the closure of all zoos and wildlife parks in the UK including his own.

We have no moral right as a species to let animals suffer just because we are curious about them, he says.

The day of the zoo is over, he claims and his views are reflected by other critics who view wildlife parks and animal collections as anachronisms that should be phased out of existence over the coming 25 years.

Yet zoos are a major part of British culture. About 30 million visits are made to animal collections every year, according to the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Some of these outfits are small and isolated and occasionally fall foul of local authorities for their mistreatment of animals. On the other hand, some larger institutions, such as London or Chester zoos are well-run and, according to supporters, justify their existence for three clear reasons: education, research and conservation.

According to this argument, revealing the wonders of our planets wildlife to the public, and investigating the biology of these animals in order to help them return to nature provide zoos with valid reason to exist. In a world beset by climate change, habitat loss and soaring human numbers, zoos provide protection for the worlds endangered species.

So who is right? Is there any justification, today, for keeping wild animals in captivity? Are zoos good for the planets threatened creatures or are they relics of past cruel attitudes to wildlife?

One argument is that zoos educate visitors, particularly younger ones, about the wonders of the planets wildlife. But Chris Draper of Born Free, the international charity that campaigns against keeping wild animals in captivity, disagrees. Today, people get more from a TV nature documentary than they will ever get from seeing animals in zoos. In captivity, an elephant or a giraffe is out of its natural environment and probably in an unnatural social grouping. Television or the internet are much better resources for understanding animals than a zoo.

Aspinall agrees. David Attenboroughs programmes are far more educational than a day trip to a zoo, he says. And you can see their point. Attenboroughs last series, Seven Worlds, One Planet, was made up of typically stunning material dramatic close-ups of gentoo penguins fleeing leopard seals, pumas in pursuit of guanacos, and Barbary macaques in high-level chases after infant kidnappers. It was exhilarating, informative and surely ideal for getting people hooked on animals.

But Attenborough flatly disagrees and is emphatic that his documentaries cannot compare to seeing the real thing. Only the sight of a creature in the flesh can give us a true understanding of its nature, he says.

There is no way you can appreciate the quiddity of an elephant except by seeing one at close quarters, he told the Observer. People ought to be able to see what an animal looks like. And smells like. And sounds like. I think that is quite important. Actually, very important.

Education certainly justifies a well-run zoos existence, he insists. On the other hand, Attenborough acknowledges that some animals fare better than others in zoos. Modern aquariums are particularly successful, with their vast ceiling-high tanks in which you can see whole communities of different species of fish living together. They are absolutely fabulous.

By contrast, polar bears, big raptors and large hunting mammals like lions are not suitable for being kept in zoos, says Attenborough. I certainly agree with Mr Aspinall in saying you should not have lions in zoos unless they were becoming endangered in the wild, which, of course is now becoming a real risk.

And the same goes for conservation, he adds. Breeding programmes for animals that are on the verge of extinction are of incredible importance. If it was not for zoos, there would be no Arabian oryx left in the world, for example.

The Arabian oryx was hunted to extinction in the wild by 1972 but was later reintroduced originally with animals from San Diego safari park to Oman. Further reintroductions have since taken place in Saudi Arabia and Israel and iIt is estimated that there are now more than 1,000 Arabian oryx in the wild.

Other species reintroduced to the wild using zoo-bred animals include the European bison and Przewalskis horse. But that is about it, argues Aspinall. Only a very small number of animals held by European zoos have been the subject of release projects, and third of those species were not rated as threatened, he says. Instead, zoos are cluttered with unthreatened species put there purely to entertain the public: otters and meerkats are common examples.

However, zoo officials reject the idea that their rewilding successes are limited and point to other examples of successfully returning zoo-bred animals to the wild for example, the Mauritius kestrel. In 1974 only four of these beautiful raptors were known to exist in the wild. It had become the worlds rarest bird thanks to habitat loss, introduction of non-native predators, and widespread use of DDT and other pesticides on the island.

A rescue plan was launched by a number of organisations, including the Durrell wildlife park and London Zoo, in a bid to save the Mauritius kestrel from extinction in the wild. The invasive crab-eating macaque was a particular problem, says Gary Ward, curator of birds at London Zoo. It had arrived in Mauritius from Asia and was stealing eggs from kestrel nests. So we designed nesting boxes that were longer than a macaques arm, so they couldnt reach in to snatch eggs. The birds then had a safe place to bring up their young.

Nesting boxes, in combination with other conservation measures, allowed numbers of Mauritius kestrels to rise to about 800 although these have dipped slightly in recent years.

Other zoo-led rewilding successes have ranged from the spectacular, such as the Californian condor which was restored to the skies above the western US last century, thanks to the release of young birds bred in San Diego to the minuscule, such as the return of the tiny partula snail, native to Huahine and Moorea in the Society Islands, French Polynesia, from populations bred in London, Edinburgh, Chester and Amsterdam zoos.

However, zoo opponents argue that these reintroductions remain infrequent and do not justify the keeping of other, unthreatened wild animals, a point taken up by Sam Threadgill of Freedom for Animals, which has campaigned for the abolition of zoos for several decades.

Together with Born Free, Freedom for Animals has studied zoos in England and Wales and concluded that only a small percentage of their animals are endangered species, and only about 15% are threatened.

It is a simple fact that the vast majority of animals kept in zoos are not endangered or threatened and are there simply to provide public entertainment, he says.

Aspinall goes further. He maintains that many large mammals kept in zoos lions, elephants, and rhinos, for example are inbred or diseased or have the wrong genetic profiles to reintroduce to the wild, where they could further weaken wild populations already struggling to survive. So why are they being arked in the first place? he asks.

The infrequency of releases of zoo-bred animals into the wild is acknowledged by Dominic Jermey, director general of the Zoological Society of London, but interpreted in a different way: The truth is that many wild areas are no longer viable habitats for animals and reintroduction is much more complicated than people might realise. Many of the worlds most threatened species are living in habitats degraded by agriculture, threatened by disease or hemmed into tiny areas with no way of reaching potential mates without coming into conflict with humans.

For his part, Aspinall points to conservation successes that he believes can be achieved with key endangered species without any input from zoos. First, he plans to gradually empty his two zoos at Howletts and at Port Lympne, near Folkestone and use these to help set up large groups of animals gorillas, rhinos, lions and others in protected reserves in Africa. A particular animal would be given homes at several reserves so that if one got into trouble for some reason civil war, for example there would be other sources that could resupply the reserve once those troubles had been sorted.

The majority of animals in zoos are not endangered or threatened and are there simply to provide public entertainment.

Aspinall points to the example of the mountain gorilla. Their numbers had fallen to under 250 by the early 1980s. Today the population stands at 1,000. This is in the country of Gabon, surrounded by aggressive habitat destruction, civil war and poaching and all done without any captive breeding.

The crucial point of this plan is that animals would not be kept behind bars but left to roam in their homeland. And instead of money being spent on zoos, funds would go directly to conservation.

But the idea of closing zoos to boost funds for conservation is challenged by Mark Pilgrim, chief executive of Chester Zoo. His organisation has a total annual budget of 47m.

That money is raised virtually entirely from people paying at our doors to get in, he says. After you deduct our running costs and cash for new development, we have around 1.5m and that goes on conservation in the field work that includes studies of chimpanzees in Nigeria and sun bears in Asia and a programme to reintroduce eastern black rhinos to Uganda. If we simply closed our doors, as some people have suggested, our funding of these conservation projects would come to an immediate halt.

He quotes as an example Nigerias Gashaka Gumti national park, which houses the last reserve of the highly endangered Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee. Chimpanzees here live in forests that are less dense and drier than where other members of the species live in other parts of Africa, says Andrew Moss, a lead conservation scientist at Chester. Their diets are rich in insects, and we have found they are amazingly adept at making tools that are just right for getting a different type of insect.

The crucial point is that if we had closed our gates at Chester, the research camp we support at Gashaka Gumti would have been badly hit and this crucial field work threatened.

Nor is it merely money for conservation work that makes zoos important, say supporters. Expertise built up in zoos is also crucial. Over the past few years, wild vulture populations in India and Nepal have crashed from about 40 million to a few thousand because of the use of diclofenac, a livestock anti-inflammatory drug that is highly poisonous to vultures who eat their carcasses.

We have been closely involved in conservation work, and our expertise in building aviaries on site to protect the last few vultures and in treating sick animals has been tremendously useful, says Nic Masters, assistant director of wildlife health at London Zoo.

In the end, these efforts and other attempts at conservation may prove futile in a world challenged by climate change, habitat loss and swelling numbers of humans, as Draper argues. Keeping alive a handful of the last of a sub-species starts to look like fools errand because this tiny population is destined either to a life in captivity in perpetuity or to extinction. Neither of those two options is particularly attractive in anyones book, I would say. The damage has been done.

This view is contested by scientists who still believe there is time to save species and who argue, strenuously, that zoos have a role to play as arks for threatened wildlife. This idea is backed by primatologist Jane Goodall, whose pioneering studies of chimpanzees in the wild have revealed the complex lives led by humanitys closest biological relatives.

Groups who believe all zoos should be closed have not spent the time I have out in the wild, she once said. They havent seen the threats destroying chimpanzee habitat; they dont understand what its like to watch a chimp struggle, wounded and lame from a wire snare. But I do.

Until the early 19th century, collections of exotic animals were usually owned by kings and queens and were symbols of royal power. This changed with the establishment of the Zoological Society of London in Regents Park in 1828. This was the worlds first scientific zoo and was intended to be a collection of unusual beasts for scientific study.

The collection was eventually opened to the public in 1847. A couple of decades later, the music hall song Walking in the Zoo was made popular by Alfred Vance and is notable for first popularising, in Britain, the word zoo as a short form of zoological gardens in addition to the Americanism O.K. in the songs chorus: Walking in the Zoo, walking in the Zoo/The O.K. thing on Sunday is walking in the Zoo.

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A combination of Quantum Computing and Blockchain Technology Will Have a huge Impact on Banking – Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

Posted: at 5:45 pm

As you might expect, with the likely promise of financial gain, banks are prime targets for any form of cybercrime. To combat the threat, it is important that banks update and review their systems and procedures. They cannot wait for hackers and need to proactively invest in the right technology that meets the needs of a modern-day consumer. Beyond that, banks are processing millions of transactions every day. There is a fear that classical computing will reach its optimum in terms of size and power, especially as data volumes grow and financial institutions invest deeper into artificial intelligence (AI).

To combat these challenges, financial institutions have started to turn towards the field of quantum computing. Experts believe that quantum technology could solve problems related to security, processing power, and data efficiency. In this post, we look at what quantum computing is and how it might impact the banking and financial services industry.

What is quantum computing?

Quantum computers are expected to exceed the capability of classical computers on the next 5 to 10 years. This will provide a vast increase in the processing power over the traditional silicon chips. The finance sector has many areas where more secure, faster transactions would be a huge benefit. With quantum computing, this is made possible whereby the data is represented by what are known as qubits, rather than standard binary bit units (0s and 1s).

Qubits provide greater flexibility as they can allow for a combination of 0s and 1s simultaneously rather than one at a time in classical computing. In short, this means they can store more data than traditional bits. The ability to quickly analyze data and spot patterns is massively increased.

Bloomberg has reported that Googles most advanced quantum computer, Sycamore, could solve a computational task that would take a traditional model 10,000 years, within just 3 minutes.

Quantum computing in banking

There are several ways that quantum computing could impact banking.

One of the examples of how quantum cryptography is being used is known as a quantum distributed key system.

https://richtopia.com/emerging-technologies/quantum-computing-financial-services-fintech

MKI-QKD protects data by combing a secure quantum distributed key with a long message that cannot be broken without the associated key. Without huge technical detail, third-parties can be detected if they eavesdrop, meaning keys created by two parties are no longer identical, disturbing the quantum event. Banks such as ABN-AMRO are already starting to integrate this type of secure technology.

For example, functions like bank loans could be almost instantaneous as quantum machines can process the data without any latency. Portfolio managers will not need to worry about managing their investments as a quantum system will be able to continuously provide them with optimal solutions.

The future of banking with quantum technology

Reports say that major banks like Barclays and JP Morgan are already looking towards quantum computing as a way to secure their future. These institutions are already experimenting with the technology and researching how it can be deployed in the real-world. The theories are still in their infancy and we will not truly know the impact until such time banks are running tasks fully on quantum machines. This brand new way of working is being referred to as the quantum advantage and will likely be something we hear a lot more about over the forthcoming decade.

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Budget 2020: Govt bets on AI, data analytics and quantum computing – Livemint

Posted: at 5:44 pm

NEW DELHI :The budget proposal to earmark 8,000 crore for quantum computing over the next five years can boost critical areas of the Indian economy, including space research and defence capabilities. However, the impact will only be felt over the long term, industry officials said.

The quantum of money proposed for the sector is almost on a par with the amount invested by the US to develop the technology.

However, the success of the initiative will depend on careful planning and implementation. Moreover, considering that there are no private companies in India working on quantum computing, the initiative, by and large, will have to be led by state-run institutions.

The fact that Indias allocation for quantum research is close to what some of the larger economies like the US are planning to spend, reflects a serious effort on the governments part," said Vishal Malhotra, tax partner, Ernst and Young (EY).

Quantum computers will open up enormous opportunities for India, particularly in the field of defence, space research, weather forecasting, and healthcare by crunching large amounts of data and solving problems infinitely faster than existing supercomputers. Googles 54-bit quantum computer took merely 200 seconds for an experimental computation that a supercomputer would have taken 10,000 years to solve.

The announcement is significant as the scale of investments necessary to make headway in quantum computing is not possible without the support of the government or large corporations. It should boost attempts of domestic technology providers, who have been keen to enter this field, but did not have the necessary scale or resources," said Nishant Singh, head of technology and telecom data, GlobalData, a data analytics firm.

The recent advancements in the field of quantum computing, including IBMs unveiling of the worlds first quantum computing system for scientific and commercial use, Googles quantum supremacy, and Microsoft taking quantum computing to the cloud, have made the world realise the possibilities it can offer.

Governments the world over are starting to grasp the potential of the technology. China already has a national strategy on quantum computing, having spent $400 million on a national quantum lab and filing twice as many patents as the US on quantum technology.

The US government had also announced a National Quantum Initiative in 2019 with an outlay of $1.2 billion ( 8,500 crore).

The recent announcement by the finance minister is a significant development for the scientific and industrial community of India, said Anil Prabhakar, professor, department of electrical engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

The quantum science and technology initiative in India has been broadly defined around computing, communications, and measurements. Of these, quantum computing is expected to provide the ability to solve hitherto intractable problems in resource optimisation, machine learning, and data security, and also help us design new materials with futuristic applications," Prabhakar said.

However, we are 5-10 years away from seeing quantum computing being used to solve real-world problems., according to experts.

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Scientists built an AI to figure out what the universe is made of – The Next Web

Posted: at 5:44 pm

A multi-university team of researchers from Japan recently used the worlds fastest astrophysics-simulation supercomputers to develop an AI system capable of predicting the structure of the universe itself. The scientists hope that in doing so theyll unlock the mysteries surrounding dark matter and dark energy.

Dubbed Dark Emulator, the AI system parses gigantic troves of astrophysics data and uses the information to build simulations of our universe. It taps into a massive database full of information gleaned from special telescopes and compares current data with what scientists expect based on theories surrounding the universes origin.

Study: Our universe may be part of a giant quantum computer

The simulation basically attempts to demonstrate what the universe might look like, including its edges, based on the big bang theory and the subsequent rapid expansion that continues to take place.

According to Phys.Org, the lead author on the teams research paper, Takahiro Nishimichi, said:

We built an extraordinarily large database using a supercomputer, which took us three years to finish, but now we can recreate it on a laptop in a matter of seconds. I feel like there is great potential in data science.

Using this result, I hope we can work our way toward uncovering the greatest mystery of modern physics, which is to uncover what dark energy is.

The hope here is that by understanding the general cosmology of the entire universe, scientists will be able to from better theories on how dark matter works. We currently assume that most of the universe is made up of dark matter. The void of space as it were, isnt a void but composed of energized matter that, so far, cant be directly observed.

But were currently unable to prove dark matter exists through scientific rigor, observation, and measurement. And that leaves astrophysicists struggling to come up with a unified theory of the universe that encompasses all the different ideas in play. How do we reconcile the Big Bang, Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principal, Einsteins Relativity, and Newtons Laws of thermodynamics with modern quantum mechanics and dark energy theories?

The team from Japan hopes we do so with the information were able to glean from Dark Emulator. The AI system doesnt just analyze data for loose ends, it learns from each simulation it creates and uses the output to inform the next iteration.

It does this by analyzing the invisible tendrils between galaxies and performing astronomical (literally) feats of mathematics to create more precise simulations. According to a paper the team published in Astrophysical Journal, its incredibly accurate:

The emulator predicts the halomatter cross-correlation, relevant for galaxygalaxy weak lensing, with an accuracy better than 2% and the halo autocorrelation, relevant for galaxy clustering correlation, with an accuracy better than 4%.

Eventually, this technology could help flesh outour understanding of the universe and allow scientists to determine exactly what dark matter is and how dark energy works. For now, this means filling in some of the massive blanks we have in our understanding of what the universe actually looks like beyond our front porch.

But in the future, having a clear understanding of dark energy could bring about myriad far-off science fiction technologies such as warp drives, time-travel, and teleportation. That is, of course, if dark matter even exists.

Published February 5, 2020 23:32 UTC

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The future of business: learning from the past – ITProPortal

Posted: at 5:44 pm

By its very definition, progress across humanity, society, and business is about evolution. Developments and inventions are rarely unique; they are more often than not an evolution of things that already exist. As French writer Simone de Beauvoir aptly put it, to make something good of the future, you have to look the present in the face. In a business context, the evolution of both historical tools and recent trends will shape the future of how we work.

Though the future of work will always be in the future, the future of your work has never been closer. The rise of robots, machine intelligence, distributed ledgers, quantum physics, gig labour, the unexaggerated death of privacy, a world eaten alive by software all of these trends point to a new world that is shaping up quite differently from anything we have ever seen, or worked in, before.

A recent Cognizant report looked at milestone inventions over the past centuries to see how they can help to inform, and transform, future technological developments. Here we explore how the apps, systems, tools, and processes of the past and present will define the future of business.

John Leonard Riddell invented the first practical binocular microscope in 1851, changing the course of medicine forever by allowing doctors to diagnose problems at a cellular level. The medicinal microscope simultaneously made the world a better place and created an entire industry that today employs millions of people around the world.

Just as microscopes changed the course of medicine more than a century ago, artificial intelligence (AI) will function as a datascope for businesses to see more data, integrate it with other data, and ultimately, make faster decisions. New tools do not necessarily automate people out of the equation completely; they allow professionals to do things they were not previously capable of.

The future world of work will see people and technology work symbiotically, with AI allowing us to grapple with a world awash with information that is denser, more complex, and coming at us faster than ever before. In turn, AI will open new opportunities for commercial growth and levels of employment for billions, making the world an even better place.

Cloud computing is the lifeblood of both our personal and professional lives, with nearly every transaction and interaction taking place via some form of private, public, or hybrid cloud. The cloud has supercharged distributed computing that is, a system where individual computers across different locations are networked together and information is shared by passing messages between the processors. Google search engine is an example of distributed computing, as are cellular networks and intranets. But with more internet-connected devices VR headsets, health trackers, toothbrushes coming online and 5G accelerating everything, we will need more computing power.

Edge computing is the answer to this problem. A framework where data is processed as close as possible to its originating source the edge of the network rather than in centralised systems, edge computing will enable a new era of business.

In the not-too-distant future, geodistributed machine learning (GDML), or AI on the edge, will allow organisations to meet governance challenges posed by data that is born in geographically distributed places or used in dispersed locations. With reduced latency and real time responsiveness, we will see technologies such as augmented reality truly shape the enterprise realm and play a significant role in how work is performed.

Z1 the worlds first electromechanical binary programmable computer was created by German scientist Konrad Zuse in his parents living room in 1938. This humble moment kicked off the greatest technological revolution in history. Virtually everything we do in life and business is influenced by binary computing power, from the systems that run our cars to those that power modern businesses. However, these computers still operate according to one of the simplest concepts a series of ones and zeros.

Where a bit can only be either one or zero, a qubit can be both one and zero at exactly the same time. The future of business AI, machine learning, and predictive modelling will be powered by the qubit via quantum computing. And this future is in sight, with companies such as IBM, D-Wave, and Alphabet all working to develop useable quantum computers.

The future of work and business is an elusive concept that either excites or terrifies, largely due to the unknown nature of it. However, it is not so unknown, as the clues to the future actually lie in our past. In a world that will be awash with unfathomable amounts of data, we will need new tools like those that transformed our world in the past to realise the immense opportunity that is right in front of us.

Euan Davis, European Lead, Centre for the Future of Work, Cognizant

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STAAR Surgical to Report Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Results on February 26, 2020 – Financialbuzz.com

Posted: February 5, 2020 at 7:52 am

STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable lenses and companion delivery systems for the eye, today announced that it will release financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 3, 2020 on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 after the market close.

STAAR will host a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, February 26 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern / 1:30 p.m. Pacific to discuss its financial results and operational progress. To access the conference call (Conference ID 5411518), please dial 866-209-9722 for domestic participants and 825-312-2235 for international participants. The live webcast can be accessed from the investor relations section of the STAAR website at http://www.staar.com.

A taped replay of the conference call (Conference ID 5411518) will be available beginning approximately one hour after the calls conclusion for seven days. This replay can be accessed by dialing 800-585-8367 for domestic callers and 416-621-4642 for international callers. An archived webcast will also be available at http://www.staar.com.

About STAAR Surgical

STAAR, which has been dedicated solely to ophthalmic surgery for over 30 years, designs, develops, manufactures and markets implantable lenses for the eye with companion delivery systems. These lenses are intended to provide visual freedom for patients, lessening or eliminating the reliance on glasses or contact lenses. All of these lenses are foldable, which permits the surgeon to insert them through a small incision. STAARs lens used in refractive surgery is called an Implantable Collamer Lens or ICL, which includes the EVO Visian ICL product line. More than 1,000,000 Visian ICLs have been implanted to date and STAAR markets these lenses in over 75 countries. To learn more about the ICL go to: http://www.discovericl.com. Headquartered in Lake Forest, CA, the company operates manufacturing and packaging facilities in Aliso Viejo, CA, Monrovia, CA and Nidau, Switzerland. For more information, please visit the Companys website at http://www.staar.com.

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Where the Democratic Candidates Stand on Medicare for All – The Fiscal Times

Posted: at 7:52 am

As Iowa Democrats prepare to pick their partys first winner in the presidential primary, the candidates approach to health care remains one of the most substantial and potentially divisive issues voters will have to face. Heres a brief review of where the candidates stand on Medicare for All, the proposed sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has served as a point of contention during the campaign:

Bernie Sanders: The Vermont senator is the most vocal supporter of Medicare for All, which he says would end up saving money for the country overall, despite its enormous price tag. Sanders wants to ban private insurance and eliminate out-of-pocket spending for patients, while covering a wider array of services than the current Medicare system. The ambitious proposal would cost more than $30 trillion over 10 years, according to independent analyses, Reuters Joseph Ax writes.

Elizabeth Warren: The Massachusetts senator also supports Medicare for All and has released a detailed plan for financing it. Facing pushback on her proposal, Warren released a transition plan for moving to a single-payer system more gradually over several years. That proposal drew some criticism from the left, with Sanders supporters claiming she had backed down from her Medicare for All stance, Ax says. Warren has said she remains committed to Medicare for All and that her plan would provide more coverage to more Americans in a shorter time frame.

Joe Biden: The former vice president says he wants to expand the Affordable Care Act by offering a public option for insurance. His healthcare plan, estimated to cost $750 billion over 10 years and paid for partly by higher taxes on the wealthy, would let people enroll in a paid government healthcare plan as an alternative to private insurance, Ax writes.

Michael Bloomberg: The former mayor of New York City says Medicare for All is unaffordable and proposes to offer a public option for insurance that exists alongside the current employment-based system. His plan would cost $1 trillion over 10 years.

Pete Buttigieg: The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has proposed a public option he describes as Medicare for all who want it. Buttigieg says that over time, that option would result in a single-payer system as more Americans sign up for cheaper and more efficient Medicare. His plan would cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

Amy Klobuchar: The centrist Minnesota senator says that Medicare for All is a pipe dream, and would instead offer a public option through either Medicare or Medicaid, paid for in part by raising taxes on the wealthy.

Andrew Yang: The tech entrepreneur says he supports the spirit of Medicare for All and wants to provide a public option to give people the freedom to leave their jobs. However, he does not want to ban private insurers.

Tom Steyer: The finance billionaire has proposed a public option that would cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

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Letters to the Editor: Feb. 5, 2020 – TCPalm

Posted: at 7:52 am

Treasure Coast Newspapers Published 4:00 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2020

After many complaints, the city of Port St. Lucie will do nothing about the roaming coyotes in Eastport. Why can't they be sedated and relocated? They howl all night and prowl looking for any small animal. No action is taken by Animal Control. Coyotes were not native to Florida. Are city officials going to wait until a child is attacked?

Anne OHear, Port St. Lucie

President Donald Trump waves as he and first lady Melania Trump walk to Marine One before departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Jan. 31, 2020.(Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, AFP via Getty Images)

As a lifelong Republican, I feel like a Republican in the wilderness. As long as I have been an adult, with my first vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Republicans have publicly stood for conservative values and fiscal restraint. Whether they lived up to this is another matter. Republicans have nearly always received my vote.

With our current president and Congress, Republican leadership seems to have lost its moral and fiscal compass. Following our current divisive president and our Republican members of Congress into the abyss has been head-spinning. While I have many Democrat friends, I have never related to the Democratic Party. I now find so much of the Republican electorate blindly following our Republican leadership toward political disaster. Few, if any, of our Republicans in Congress or the electorate hold this president to task for his reprehensible behavior as President and I dont see many Republican voters holding the Republicans in Congress to task either.

In 2020, I will find it difficult to vote for a Democrat. It will be equally difficult to vote for a Republican. One thing is for sure: I cant vote for this president again.

Randy Green, Port St. Lucie

The /cartoonist's homepage,https://www.courier-journal.com(Photo: Marc Murphy, (Louisville, Ky.) Courier Journal)

I received a mailer from the American Action Network recently. They state on their website: The American Action Network is a 501(c)(4) action tank that will create, encourage and promote center-right policies based on the principles of freedom, limited government, American exceptionalism, and strong national security.

The front of the mailer states: Congressman Brian Mast Supports H.R. 19, The Lower Costs, More Cures Act, calling it A Bipartisan, Commonsense Solution.

With a little help from the congress.gov website, I learned there are 145 co-sponsors for this bill. The bipartisan makeup is 145 Republican co-sponsors and 0, none, zippo, Democrats.

The mailer goes on to say I should Call Congressman Mast and Thank him for his bipartisan plan to lower prescription drug costs.

His bipartisan plan?

Brian Mast isnt even one of the 145 Republicans who did sign on as a co-sponsor. He didnt put his name on the bill.

ButMast isnt the main character in this letter, the mailer is.

Theyre soon to descend on us. How many of us are going to take the time and make the effort to find the truth? How many of us have been taking that time and making that effort lately?

Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.

Mark Twain

Harvey Glatt, Port St. Lucie

I am astonished that the Republican senators are so terrified of their president that they are willing to sell their souls to the devil rather than do their job and live up to the oaths they took. They are willing to kneel, kiss his ring and call him master.

That is the reason we left and started the United States of America, so one man would not have the ultimate power. That is why our forefathers looked out for us, so we could be free of a dictator.

What is the difference in what Biden did and what Trump is doing by having his family profit off his being president? Now is the time for term limits for those who make a living off government jobs. Have you ever wondered why a millionaire would want to spend so much money to get a job and get constant vacations, wonderful retirements, and great health care? Its amazing to me. Its sickening to me that the people are willing to close their eyes to presidents unlawfulness, yet guns kill our schoolchildren without qualms about it. Pray for our country and hope that we regain respect again in this world.

Helen Leone, Port St. Lucie

I hope the voters remember Jan. 31 when they vote in November. How could 51 Republican senators not vote their conscience? What has President Trump done to this country that he has gotten most Republican legislators so scared? He is acting like Putin or the other dictators he espouses as great men. What is happening to this country that in a trial, no witnesses are called?

When, in the future, books will be written showing that Trump did most of the impeachable things the Democrats have claimed he did, it will be too late I fear. I love this country, and I'm heartsick that our president is a dictator, and not an American who believes in the Constitution. All Trump seems to do is go to rallies where he speaks to his base, only. What does he do with his time in the White House (besides tweeting)? America deserves better than Trump and the present Republican senators.

Rita Wolper, Palm City

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Letters to the Editor: Feb. 5, 2020 - TCPalm

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Budget 2020: Long on vision, but the devil is in the details – Livemint

Posted: at 7:52 am

New Delhi: How does one rate Budget 2020, the second season of the Nirmala Sitharaman show in just seven months?

In the past, every budget was judged both for its form, influenced solely by the FM, and its substance. However, over the past few decades, commensurate with the rise of the private sector, the budget has ceased to be the only force multiplier, diminishing the substance the annual exercise can offer.

Yet, it did not prevent the build-up of hype, especially with Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly investing his social capital in the effort. In short, Sitharaman was expected to, like a magician, conjure a rabbit out of the hat as it were. Measured against these rather unfair expectations, the budget, at least going by the initial response of the stock markets, seems to have disappointed. Indeed, while this may be a justified first impression, it would be a mistake to dismiss it thus. Here are four reasons why:

To begin with the first budget of this decade was an honest effort from Sitharaman in extremely inclement economic circumstances. She had the unenviable task of stretching the cloth to accommodate interests all aroundin this case, as she pointed out in the post-budget interview to Mint, it included both Bharat and India. She could have, like previous incumbents, buried the bad news and window dressed the fiscal numbers.

Instead, the FM chose to come clean. She has now made it the norm to disclose off balance sheet debta bone of contention with analysts and rating agencies; and projected a fiscal slippage in 2020-21.

Second, the budget makes a very formal play for market forces. To its credit, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the coalition government, is probably the most pro-business political regime ever; to avoid being dubbed a suit-boot Sarkar", they have tagged pro-poor to their pro-business credentials. This is most evident in the fiscal choices by Sitharaman. She has not used the fiscal space to undertake more directed spending; instead, the money has been deployed in tax giveaways. The income tax sops transfer money to individuals who, in turn, can spend it on their discretion. The freedom to choose is a fundamental of market economics.

Third, flowing from the above, with this budget, the NDA has reiterated that the public sector is no longer sacred to the national economic mantra. Just days after Air India was again put on the block, the FM has more than tripled the disinvestment target to 2.1 trillion; and included even Life Insurance Corporation of India, the most iconic symbol of security for the common man. Reformwallahs will presumably take succour from this ideological commitment to privatization.

Fourth, this Union budget has signalled that the government has reached the limits of its fiscal abilities. Accordingly in future, states will have to be fiscal stakeholders in development projects being undertaken jointly. How fiscally strapped states will generate the resources is another matter, though. This is exactly why states and the Union governmentif they share the vision of India First"will have to walk the talk on cooperative federalism.

Finally, where this budget falls short is not simply that projections of some of the budget targets are up in the air. Instead, it has missed the opportunity to genuinely seek to streamline direct taxes. A flawed model, with myriad slabs and rates, has all but buried the singular tax reform: goods and services tax.

A similar slip-up seems to have afflicted the rejig of income tax rates undertaken in the budget. While the move to a low tax rate regime shorn of deductions is most welcome, the budget lost the script by actually creating more tax slabsclassic overkill by zealous bureaucrats, who like Cold War warriors, believe everyone should be distrusted. A similar overreach has brought NRIs into the tax net, opening a potential political front against the government.

In the final analysis, it is clear that the budget is long in vision. The attempt to be all- encompassing may have buried them, though. Worryingly though, the budget risks being overwhelmed by avoidable self-goals. As the old adage goes, for the want of a nail, the kingdom was lost.

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Opinion | Like the curious incident of the dog that did not bark – Livemint

Posted: at 7:52 am

The day after the annual budget speech is disconcerting for an Indian economist. After being generally ignored for most of the year, suddenly friends and strangers seek opinions and ask for clarifications, explanations, etc. This is perhaps one of the occupational hazards of being an economist.

Requests to decode the budget reminded me of this lovely exchange Sherlock Holmes has with inspector Gregory in the The Adventure OfSilver Blaze, which chronicles the disappearance of racehorse Silver Blaze and the murder of its trainer:

Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

The dog did nothing in the night-time."

That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

That the dog didnt bark helps Holmes solve the case.

The key to decoding this years budget is similar to the curious incident of the dog that didnt bark. Listening to this years speech was a surreal experience because it seemed like the finance ministers generally upbeat and buoyant attitude was referring to some other economy. In the longest budget speech ever, not once did she mention the word slowdown" or reference slowing growth rates, or a growth slumpphrases now recurring in the nightmares of economists and investors focused on India.

Instead, the finance ministers mood was oddly self-congratulatory. She said: We have moved on from a growth rate of just over 4% in 1950s to 6% in 1980s and 1990s. However, during 2014-19 we clocked growth of 7.4% on average with inflation, averaging around 4.5%. It is worthwhile to note that inflation was close to 9% in the last two decades of the last millennium and ranged 10.5% during 2009-14." She seemed pleased about a 4.5% growth rate, and completely skipped the high-growth period of 2001-2011, perhaps to avoid even the slightest comparison.

This lack of recognition by the government of any kind of slowdown is the key to understanding the 2020 budget. The rest, as they say, is just numbers. The missing acknowledgement of the current state of Indias economy suggests that the government is asleep at the wheel. Either because there is a genuine lack of understanding of the working of the economy, or because, despite some understanding of the slump, controlling the narrative takes priority, which is also a signal to the market.

So far, the former seems more likely, though markets will react similarly to both. A number of blunders have accompanied the most recent silence on the slump. Key government members have bragged that Indian growth rates are higher than Chinas and the USseconomies at a completely different stage of development. They have blamed sectoral slowdowns on millennials spending patterns. And, who can forget the chaos caused by misleading gross domestic product (GDP) and growth rate numbers with virtually no explanation from the government?

Aside from blunders, the government has done little to reveal its understanding of the economy and its plans for the future. Few are aware of its views on the reasons for the slump. The banking sector and its non-performing asset crisis sat like an elephant in the room as Indian poetry was cited. Nothing in the budget speech mirrored the warning signs in the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament. Major themes of the surveyexpanding economic freedom in India and increasing the faith placed in the private sectorwere left unaddressed. Not a single major sector of the economy has been liberalized or reformed towards greater economic freedom. This makes one wonder if the government is listening even to economists on its own payroll.

In a scenario where the government is fiscally constrained and cannot unleash a fiscal stimulus, the burden of any such stimulus, if there is to be one, falls on the states. Similarly, if the government cannot kick-start investment, there is a heightened reliance on private investment. A budget that does not explicitly address the growth slowdown and does not call upon the states and the private sector to work with the Union government on arresting downtrends is telling.

The big move to unleash some spending, especially in infrastructure, is to woo foreign sovereign funds to invest in India by giving tax exemptions and abolishing the dividend distribution tax. But these sovereign funds have teams of macroeconomists studying India and, like Sherlock Holmes, will notice the dog that did not bark. In the absence of a coherent narrative by the government on its fiscal policy over the next few years, and its plans to use other tools to address economic growth, investors usually assume the worst.

The Sensex and Nifty saw their biggest single-day fall in five years. Contrary to popular opinion, this was not because the government was fiscally conservative, for markets would have also reacted badly if it had been fiscally profligate. The reason for the fall is twofold. The government did not acknowledge that the situation is dire and that it cannot spend its way out of the current slowdown. The second cause was its lack of communication on a responsible way forward in these circumstances.

The finance minister spent much time speaking of aspirational India, economic development and a caring society". But the house is on fire, and the lack of urgency or acknowledgement only makes it seem like naive daydreaming.

Shruti Rajagopalan is a senior research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, US

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