Daily Archives: March 5, 2020

Plenty of contested races on the ballot this year – Norfolk Daily News

Posted: March 5, 2020 at 6:46 pm

The field is set for May as the deadline to file for elected office passed Monday night, and there will be contested races all throughout the ballot.

Two city council seats in Norfolk will be challenged by multiple candidates.

In the first ward, three candidates will compete for the seat held by Dick Pfeil, who is not seeking reelection. Those three are Christopher L. Moore, Juan E. Sandoval and Kory Hildebrand. In the second ward, four candidates have filed for Jim Langes seat: Frank Arens, Bill Hattery, Carl Weiland and Randy Dee. The top two vote-getters in each ward in May will advance to the general election in November.

At least two candidates will advance to the general election in the race for Madison County commissioner. Republicans Eric Stinson and Chris Thompson will compete in their partys primary, while Libertarian Zak Hookstra is running unopposed in that party. No Democratic candidate filed for the seat. Incumbent Christian Ohl declined to run for another term.

Three area state legislative seats will be contested between incumbent and challenger. Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston will face Sheryl Lindau of Wayne in District 17. The district covers Wayne, Thurston and Dakota counties. Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont is being challenged by David Rogers of Fremont in District 15, which covers Dodge County. In District 43, which covers a large swath of North Central Nebraska, incumbent Tom Brewer of Gordon will be challenged by Tanya Storer of Whitman.

A Norfolkan also is throwing his hat into the race for the U.S. Senate. Dr. Daniel Wik, who was previously the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016, has filed in the Democratic primary for this years Senate race.

Dr. Wik, a pain management physician, faces a crowded field, with seven other candidates competing in the Democratic primary.

Other contested races include:

Four candidates will run for three seats on the Norfolk Public Schools board of education: incumbents Arnie Robinson and Sandy Wolfe and challengers Jenna Hatfield and Brenda Carhart.

Four candidates will run for three seats on the Elkhorn Valley board of education: incumbents Tyler Tegeler and Jenny Schutt, both of Meadow Grove, and challengers Sam Johnsen and Lucas Negus, both of Tilden.

Five candidates have filed for two seats on the Battle Creek City Council: incumbent Brent Nygren and challengers Chris Prauner, Nicole Schacher, Dave Trudeau and John Hrabanek.

Four candidates will compete for three seats on the Tilden City Council: incumbents Travis Rutjens and Darrell Wyatt, along with challengers Lisa A. Meyer and Terry James.

Patti Gubbels of Norfolk will run against Mike Goos of Columbus for a seat on the state board of education. The seat is held by Rachel Wise of Oakland, who has declined to run for another term.

Timothy Miller of Norfolk is challenging incumbent Jeff Scherer of Beemer for an at-large seat on the Northeast Community College board of governors.

Four races for seats on the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District board of directors are contested. Those include seats for subdistrict 1, between incumbent Aaron Zimmerman of Pierce and challenger Jay Reikofski of Foster; in subdistrict 2 incumbent Mark Hall of Norfolk is being challenged by Lee Klein of Norfolk; in subdistrict 4 Rod Zohner of Battle Creek and Michael Fleer of Battle Creek will vie for an open seat and Randy Ruppert of Fremont will challenge incumbent Gary Loftis of Craig in subdistrict 7.

Dennis Bridge of Royal and Cody Frank of Brunswick are running for an open seat on subdistrict 5 on the Upper Elkhorn NRD board of directors.

Incumbent Barry DeKay of Niobrara will be challenged by Aaron Troester of ONeill for a seat on the Nebraska Public Power District board of directors.

Several races, however, will proceed to May and November with no official opposition.

That includes Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning, who is running for his second term.

Mike Flood, a Norfolk attorney and business owner, will run unopposed for the Nebraska Legislature to represent District 19, which covers Madison County. Flood, who previously served two terms in the Legislature, is running to replace Sen. Jim Scheer, who is ineligible because of term limits. Sen. Tom Briese of Albion will be running unopposed for a second term in District 41, which includes Boone, Antelope and Pierce counties.

Norfolk City Council incumbents Gary Jackson and Thad Murren also will advance with no opposing candidates.

In other uncontested races:

Jeremy Pochop, Toby Thompson and Sean Lindgren are running for three seats on the Battle Creek board of education. Pochop and Thompson are incumbents.

Eric L. Stone, Becky Wallin and Ginger Buhl-Jorgensen are running for three seats on the Newman Grove board of education. Wallin and Buhl-Jorgensen are incumbents.

Madison City Council incumbents Paul Kellen and Robert Fite are running unopposed to another term.

Donovan Ellis, Nicole Sedlacek, Arlan Kuehn, Gene Willers and Dirk Petersen are running unopposed in their respective districts for the Northeast Community College board of governors.

Cris Elznic is running unopposed to another term on the Newman Grove City Council.

Robert Huntley, Jerry Allemann and Matt Steffen are running unopposed for reelection to Lower Elkhorn NRD subdistricts 3, 5 and 6.

Russell Schmidt, Chris A. Johnson, Marcel Kramer, Carolyn A. Heine and Curtis Armstrong are all running unopposed to continue their terms on the Lewis & Clark NRD board of directors.

Karl Connell, Jack Engelhaupt, Randy Klawitter, Raymond Naprstek, Brian Kaczor, John Janzing and Donald Holtgrew are running unopposed to continue their terms on the Lower Niobrara NRD board of directors.

Leonard Danielski and Greg Wilke are running unopposed to another term on the Middle Niobrara NRD board of directors, while Tim Nollette is running for an open seat.

Roy Steward, Curtis Gotschall, Gene Kelly, Gary Bartak and Keith Heithoff are running unopposed to continue their terms on the Upper Elkhorn NRD board of directors. Arthur Tanderup is running unopposed for an open seat in subdistrict 6.

In the races for federal office, Republican Ben Sasse faces a challenge within his own party from Matt Innis of Crete. In addition to Dr. Wik, seven other Democrats have filed as well: Dennis F. Macek, Chris Janicek, Larry Marvin, Angie Philips, Alisha Shelton, Andy Stock and Gene Siadek.

In the first congressional district, Republican incumbent Jeff Fortenberry is unopposed in the primary, as is Libertarian challenger Dennis B. Grace. Democrats Kate Bolz of Lincoln and Babs Ramsey of Bellevue will compete in their partys primary.

In the third congressional district, incumbent Republican Adrian Smith faces a slew of challengers: Larry Bolinger, William Elfgren, Justin Moran and Arron Kowalski. Democrat Mark Elworth Jr. and Libertarian Dustin C. Hobbs face no opposition in their partys primaries.

Here is the original post:

Plenty of contested races on the ballot this year - Norfolk Daily News

Posted in Libertarian | Comments Off on Plenty of contested races on the ballot this year – Norfolk Daily News

Talking about a revolution – The Economist

Posted: at 6:46 pm

Mar 7th 2020

ON AN ICY late evening in Boston, on March 5th 1770, an angry mob advanced on a dozen redcoats standing outside the citys customs building. Ignoring the pleas of the British officer present, Captain Thomas Preston, the Bostonians hurled razor-edged oyster shells and blocks of wood and ice in the darkness, knocking one soldier off his feet. He fired back, prompting several others to do likewise before Preston, despite having been clubbed in the mle, ordered them to stop. The soldiers retired, leaving three men dead in the snow and several wounded, two of whom died shortly after.

To ascertain what had gone wrong and who was to blame for the bloody massacre, there followed the most forensic series of investigations of the colonial period. It led to and included the trials of Preston and eight of his men for murder, at which scores of eye witnesses were cross-examined by the sharpest legal minds. The defence team for the soldiers included John Adams, a future president, and called 52 witnesses. The testimonies were contradictory. Some claimed Preston had ordered the soldiers to shoot. Most described the British retaliating under severe provocation; given the noise, darkness and confusion it was hard to be sure of anything.

Two of the redcoats were convicted of manslaughter and had the letter M seared into their thumbs. The rest were acquitted. Facts are stubborn thingswhatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, said Adams in his defence of the soldiers. In a later diary entry, displayed in a fine anniversary exhibition at the Massachusetts Historical Society, he determined that the verdict of the jury was exactly right.

That is not a view with which many of those who gather to watch Bostons annual re-enactment of the riot this week would concur. An idea of the massacre as an act of imperialist terror which provoked the crisis, five years later, after which this column is named is one of Americas most popular historical myths. This reflects a disinformation campaign that began directly after the violence and has continued, one way or another, ever since. At a time when the political use of history is proving especially contentiousfollowing the impeachment row and another over the New York Timess 1619 Project, which aims to reframe the American story around racismthe Boston Massacre is an instructive example.

Bostonians antipathy towards the 2,000 British troops sent to the city in 1768 has also been exaggerated. A new book by Serena Zabin documents many family ties between the armed forces and civilian population (it helped that Boston had a surfeit of women). Nonetheless, the garrison offended the libertarian zeal of the Bostonian elite, whose members duly seized on the riot for propaganda value. A cartoon engraved by Paul Revere depicted the redcoats as sneering killers, Preston as their apish cheerleader and the customs office as Butchers Hall. An annual Massacre orationthe precursor of this weeks re-enactmentwas launched a few months after the redcoats acquittal. Adams declined to give the third oration on the spurious ground of old age (he was 37). Yet he had in a way facilitated this burgeoning distortion through his own economy with the truth. He had taken pains to absolve regular Bostonians of any blame for the violence, instead attributing it to a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes, Irish teagues. Based on sketchy evidence, he blamed one of the victims, a black sailor called Crispus Attucks, in particular.

This had unforeseen consequences. Eighty years later Attucks was embraced by black abolitionists in Boston as the first martyr of the American revolution. When it was put to them that the riot was not the revolution and there was scant evidence for Attuckss lead role, they had only to cite Bostons orations and Adamss defence. A Bostonian paramilitary group, precursor to black units in the Union army, was called the Attucks Guards. A grand monument to Attucks was raised in Boston Common in 1888. Dedicating it, the Irish nationalist poet John Boyle OReilly tied Attucks to freedom struggles everywhere: We honour a shrine unfinished, a column uncapped with pridewhen Crispus Attucks died.

Attucks remains popular with black activists. In the civil-rights era, schools were named after him. Recent victims of police brutality and the group they inspired, Black Lives Matter, have been compared to him. White activists also recall the massacre. During its re-enactment in 1975, protesters against Massachusettss then policy of busing black children to affluent schools collapsed in the streetto assert that they were also victims of tyranny.

This saga holds several lessons. Libertarian ideals were the intellectual basis for the revolutionary struggle, yet a distorting lens through which to understand almost any isolated episode of it. Their epic force (illustrated in the massacres early commemorations: the 1775 oration was delivered by Joseph Warren, months before his death at Bunker Hill, in a toga) proved irresistible from the start, however. This politicising of events has in turn fuelled a rich American tradition of mobilising history to score points.

The Timess 1619 Project (named after the year Africans were first brought to North America) is not only a corrective to that tradition, but part of it. It has been criticised for being partial and containing inaccuracies. It also downplays the contribution of African-Americans to Americas struggle to live up to the founders vision; and the inspiration many of them have found in it. African-Americans were participants in the Boston Massacre and, in one of the first states to restrict and then abolish slavery, beneficiaries of the events it helped set in train. In the figure of Attucks, they also found an unlikely inspiration in massacre propaganda.

Sticklers for historical accuracy have much to complain of here. Yet the incontestable fact of the massacre offers consolation. In 18th-century Boston, justice and the rule of law prevailed over politics and the mob. Perhaps even more than ideas of freedom, they are Americas foundation. May Adamss successors remember it.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Legends of the slaughter"

Read the original here:

Talking about a revolution - The Economist

Posted in Libertarian | Comments Off on Talking about a revolution – The Economist

Global conservation communities pinning their hopes on new agreement to save nature – Independent Online

Posted: at 6:44 pm

By Sheree Bega Mar 3, 2020

Share this article:

Humanity is driving at full speed towards the abyss of ecosystem collapse, from local freshwater systems to the global climate, but is blindly ignoring the warning lights and crash barriers continuing to ramp up business as usual, says environmental futurist Professor Nick King.

As the web of life unravels across the planet, many in the global conservation community are pinning their hopes on a new agreement to save nature - and humanity itself.

Touted as a Paris-style accord to halt the collapse of nature, the draft UN Global Biodiversity Framework sets out a global plan to safeguard nature through 2030, under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

But King, a global change analyst and strategist, is sceptical.

We keep setting non-binding goals and targets, change little by way of policies and incentives to meet them, miss them widely and then spend extraordinary amounts of time and efforts setting new ones, all to no avail as they dont address the underlying causes of loss.

The decline of nature is driven by other sectors, such as the extractives sector, as evidenced in the 2019 Global Resources Outlook reportof the UNEP's Integrated Resources Panel, thus the biodiversity sector cannot address them without a fundamental shift in governance structure and authority within governments and globally.

King served as co-chairperson on the science and policy advisory panel of the report, which shows how over 90% of biodiversity loss and freshwater stress, as well as more than 50% of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change, are from the extractives sector, including agriculture

Since the 1970s, the global population has doubled, the use of natural resources has tripled and global GDP has grown fourfold, the report shows.

These trends, says King, have gobbled large amounts of natural resources to fuel economic development and improvements in human well-being.

But they have come at a tremendous cost to our natural environment, ultimately impacting human well-being and exacerbating inequalities within and between countries.

In May, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned how one million assessed plant and animal species face extinction, perhaps within decades, more than ever before in human history.

All our recent global assessments such as from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPBES and GEO6 talk of the need for transformative change. This is recorded in the zero draft (of the Global Biodiversity Framework), says King. Without this transformative change in our values, consumptive way of life, economic growth at all costs idiocy, unlimited population growth, etc, we will not address the causes.

It is physically impossible for the Earths natural resource base to maintain itself - and meet humanitys demands. So, frankly, another set of targets, couched yet again in all the same wonderful rhetoric of how much we depend on natures bounty etc, is, at best, simply meaningless in terms of actual change, and at worst, it allows politicians and others to believe everything is fine, under our control and no further actions are needed.

This very dangerous complacency is exacerbated by the fact that, globally, almost no politicians have any sort of qualifications in environmental science and are incapable of actually understanding the dire straits were in, let alone setting policies to address this. As humanity, we have and are incurring enormous ecological debt and very soon, nature is going to invoice us for repayment.

In 2010, parties to the CBD adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and its 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets but experts say these have failed to halt nature's precipitous decline.

This week, over 190 nations met in Rome to continue negotiations on the zero draft of the post-2020 framework, which will eventually be agreed at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China, in October.

The draft global plan is hopelessly weak and inadequate, believes Friends of the Earth International, noting how it fails to address the root causes of the collapse of nature - the over-consumption of resources by wealthier countries, industrial agriculture and an economic system that drives further destruction and greater inequality.

The draft will not halt damaging practices such as mining, commodity crops or pesticide use. The main failure of the existing plan was that governments mostly ignored it without repercussions It allows for nature to be destroyed as long as it is saved elsewhere, which would lead to corporations putting a price on nature and offsetting their damage by paying to save it in another place. This will inevitably lead to a financial market in saving and destroying biodiversity.

The draft, it says, ignores the vital role of indigenous peoples and local communities in defending ecosystems.

Professor Belinda Reyers, of the Future Africa unit at the University of Pretoria, points out the zero draft is a very early draft, with a fair way to go before it is negotiated by the worlds governments and finalised in Kunming.

The previous biodiversity framework was "not what one would call a resounding success as we have largely not made progress to most of the targets it set.

"There is a lot of concern, that just like that 2020 framework, this post-2020 framework seems tofocus more on what we are losing, than why we are losing it.By focusing on things like extinction rates, or areas of ecosystems lost we are reallyjust documenting the decline of the natural world.

"Goals a, b, and c in the draft framework fall into this basket of targets whichfocus our attention on the decline, but not on the causes of the decline.Even under these goals in their action targets the focus appears to be on pollution or invasive alien species, which while important, recent research has shown are reallynot the major culprits of biodiversity loss."

The main causes at a global scale are land use and sea use change through agriculture and aquaculture expansion and intensification, for example, climate change and over-exploitation of species for food, trade or other uses, Reyers points out.

"If we focus attention on these only we will really only be 'managing the decline of the natural world', rather than the ambitious plan that is needed to halt biodiversity loss and restore it to some of its former glory.This is what was meant bytransformative change: fundamental changes or reconfigurations in the economic, political, social and value systems and structures that have caused the high rates of biodiversity loss we are witnessing.

"So, a framework that focuses on ecosystems, extinction rates and protected areas,is really not ambitious enoughto counteract and influence the larger drivers of biodiversity lossincluding large scale drivers of change on the planet from agriculture, energy, trade, urbanisation, climate change, inequality."

While there are small hints of this in the draft framework, "calls right now are to make these hints more central and ambitious in the framework".

A key challenge, as always, she says, is that so many of these drivers of biodiversity loss and levers or areas of transformative change lie outside the biodiversity and environment sector.

"Hence the limited focus on protected areas and use of wild species which fall more within the remit of the biodiversity sector. Setting targets that lie far outside the sector, will prove challenging for the environmental sector to actually implement and make progress on. This is a core tension at the heart of the framework: targets you have some say over as a sector vs. targets that will make a difference."

Reyers points to theunsophisticated way that biodiversity is linked to outcomes for people in the draft framework."There is so much evidence of the critical role that biodiversity plays in almost all aspects of social and economic development from food production, sources of income, protection from natural hazards, mitigation of climate change, and a myriad of spiritual, cultural, aesthetic, health and recreational benefits that South Africans are very familiar with from our mountains, beaches, game reserves, forest and rivers.

"And yet this framework which sets itself up as a having a 'mission to put biodiversity on a path to recovery for the benefit ofplanet and people' only lists nutrition, water and disaster resilience as benefits to people."

This has two major implications. "First, this narrow focus will miss out on changes in biodiversity that have real consequences for people. Second, at a time when we need all the support we can get to put biodiversity on this 'path to recovery' from across all sectors of society and the economy, failing to make clear why this mission is important to these other sectors from health, to education to rural development is a misstep."

Morn du Plessis, the chief executive of World Wide Fund for Nature-SA, says 2020 is being punted as a Super Year for nature.

This presents the opportunity to adapt and renew international targets for three interdependent issues: the Sustainable Development Goals, nature (with three major international gatherings on biodiversity coming up) and climate, in particular the resilience that needs to be built into the system.

We are looking at a planetary level emergency when it comes to nature loss, with major economic and social costs. This includes fragmentation and under-delivery of nature-related conventions and the need to connect nature with the economy and climate. Among the many challenges we are facing are the need to provide food and water for 9 billion people by 2030, in the face of biodiversity loss and a rapidly changing climate.

A new narrative that positions healthy, diverse and functional natural systems as the foundation for social and economic development, stability and security, as well as individual well-being is needed.

Were looking for an agreement that is in the same league as the Paris climate agreement and are pushing for heads of state to buy into a concept of setting nationally determined contributions similar to the climate agreement.

Individual governments must develop and implement their own ambitious national action plans to contribute to these targets, and then report back to the CBD on their progress regularly.

This then enables all governments to work together to identify global implementation gaps and increase their ambition where necessary until the collective effort is aligned to the ambitious targets.

A movement of non-state actors working with governments, in particular the private sector, will be critical.

Globally, South Africa is recognised as a biodiversity superpower, says Du Plessis. By the majority of measures we fall within the top 10 most biologically diverse countries. With this statistic comes not only pride, but the obligation of care through legally binding global commitments that we have signed up to.

Ambitious plan to stabilise loss of nature by 2030

Biodiversity, and the benefits it provides, are fundamental to human well-being and a healthy planet, says the zero draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, but it is deteriorating worldwide.

The framework sets out an ambitious plan to implement broad-based action to bring about a transformation in societys relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.

It is built around a theory of change, which recognises that urgent policy action globally, regionally and nationally is required to transform economic, social and financial models so the trends that have exacerbated biodiversity loss will stabilise in the next 10 years and allow for the recovery of natural ecosystems in the following 20 years.

It presents five long-term goals for 2050, with 20 targets for 2030 meant to contribute towards achieving these goals.

The draft plan proposes, among others, placing around a third of land and oceans under some form of protection, and cutting pollution from plastic waste and excess nutrients and biocides by 50% by 2030, and restoring freshwater and marine ecosystems.

I know that the world is eagerly waiting out there for demonstrable progress towards a clear, actionable and transformative global framework on biodiversity,"Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the acting executivesecretary of the CBD, said in a statement.

"They want a framework that can be implemented at all levels, namely, at global, regional levels, national and subnational levels. They want a framework that builds upon the existing Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and its accompanying Aichi Biodiversity Targets and a framework that aligns with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development."

This initial zero draft was based on extensive consultations, advice from governments, scientists, indigenous peoples, NGOs and others, gathered through dozens of meetings and hundreds of written submissions.

It was developed in response to the 2019 IPBES assessment.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, in a position paper, says that while it welcomes the draft framework, the proposed draft action targets will not deliver the goals outlined, and will not therefore halt the net loss of biodiversity by 2030. It follows that the framework will not deliver the required transformative change.

Avoiding extinction:

If 30% of the land area is conserved in tropical regions in Latin America, Africa and southeast Asia, the extinction risk facing vascular plants, birds and mammals could be halved.

A new study published this week in the journal Ecography, authored by 21 global biodiversity and climate change scientists, finds that increased conservation efforts together with efforts to limit global warming to 2C offers the best chance to slow species loss.

Avoiding extinctions results in healthy ecosystems that provide many services critical to people, including maintaining key carbon stores that prevent runaway climate change.

Do your bit:

What is biodiversity?

The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is considered to be important and desirable.

SAs rich biodiversity:

The number of South African animal species is estimated at 67000 and more than 20400 plant species have been described.

Approximately 7% of the worlds vascular plant species, 5% of mammal, 7% of bird, 4% of reptile, 2% of amphibian, 1% of freshwater fish and 16% of shark, skate and ray species are found in the country.

It is home to nearly 10% of the world coral species and almost a quarter of the global cephalopod species such as octopus, squid, cuttlefish.

Some terrestrial invertebrate groups have high richness relative to global statistics - 13% of the worlds sun spiders and nearly 5% of butterflies occur in the country.

Around half of the countrys species of reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and freshwater fish are endemic. Almost two-thirds of plant species are endemic - mostly linked to the unique Cape Floristic Region.

Approximately 40% of South Africas estimated 10 000 marine animal species are endemic, the vast majority invertebrates.

Did you know?

South Africa is ranked in the top three countries globally when it comes to plant and marine species endemism (species found nowhere else on earth).

The diversity and uniqueness of its species and ecosystems makes the country one of the worlds 17 mega diverse nations - countries that together contain more than two-thirds of the worlds biodiversity.

The economy is highly dependent on this biodiversity. For example, biodiversity tourism demand generates a direct spend of about R31 billion in the economy annually, and its 2 000 medicinal plant species contribute to the African traditional medicine sector worth around R18bn a year.

How biodiversity benefits people:

- Nearly invisible insect pollinators are essential for the production of nutritious fruits and vegetables.

- SAs plant and animal species are used for food and medicine; Aloe ferox, for example, is 95% wild-harvested and used in over 140 cosmetic and complementary medicine products.

- Healthy estuarine and marine ecosystems supports 22 commercial fisheries sectors, about 29 000 small-scale fishers and 700 000 recreational fishers.

- Interacting with nature brings measurable emotional, mental and physical benefits, influences our cultural and spiritual development, and provides R31bn per year to the tourism economy.

To help protect biodiversity:

- Consider what you eat: consume foods from local sources that are sustainably produced.

- Think before you buy: minimise purchasing of items that have only a single use (plastic straws, food in single-use packaging), and buy locally-made items to reduce your carbon footprint.

- Reduce your waste: recycle all packaging, reduce your energy and water consumption, and make sure you dont waste them, dispose of any other waste appropriately.

- Become involved: support local initiatives that protect, restore and study nature - like coastal clean-ups, biodiversity citizen science projects, alien plant hacking, and more. Source: SA National Biodiversity Institute

SAs role in Rome

Albi Modise, the spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Affairs, says South Africa took part in the discussions in Rome this week and was engaging through the Africa regional group.

Modise says: The African priorities that SA is advancing as chair of the AU are related to ecosystem protection and restoration, management and enhancement of freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, thus supporting associated socio-economic activities; management of invasive alien species; access and benefit-sharing with associated traditional knowledge, impact assessment aligned to Article 14 of the Convention on Biological Diversity; mainstreaming biodiversity into relevant sectors; natural capital accounting; biosafety; climate change and biodiversity and poaching and illegal wildlife trade.

These elements would need to be supported by means of implementation focusing specifically on financial resources, scientific co-operation and technology transfer as well as capacity building.

The zero draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework has been drafted by the co-chairs on the basis of the extensive consultations that have been undertaken and the inputs that have been received.

It provides a basis on which the key elements can now be developed for further negotiations. The focus of the meeting is to identify areas where further preparatory work or consultation is required

Future meetings will then focus on addressing the levels of ambition and setting targets. It seems too early and unjustifiable to judge the current draft as hopelessly weak for parties to commence with focused and structured engagements.

The Saturday Star

Here is the original post:

Global conservation communities pinning their hopes on new agreement to save nature - Independent Online

Posted in Socio-economic Collapse | Comments Off on Global conservation communities pinning their hopes on new agreement to save nature – Independent Online

Top 5 things to know about the state of artificial intelligence – TechRepublic

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Artificial intelligence continues to grow rapidly. Tom Merritt breaks down the five things you need to know about AI, according to a report from Stanford University.

Every year the Human-Centered Artificial Institute at Stanford puts together the Artificial Intelligence Index Report, relying on experts from around the discipline, including folks at Harvard, Google Open AI, and more, to try to pin down where we are with artificial intelligence (AI). You should definitely read all 290 pages, but for now here are five things to know about the state of AI.

SEE: Artificial intelligence ethics policy (TechRepublic Premium)

That's just where the work is getting done and where the money flows. As far as results, AI seems to be helping make software work a little better. But, most of your human skills are just getting help from the competition, not being replaced for now.

We deliver the top business tech news stories about the companies, the people, and the products revolutionizing the planet. Delivered Daily

Image: iStockphoto/metamorworks

Here is the original post:

Top 5 things to know about the state of artificial intelligence - TechRepublic

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on Top 5 things to know about the state of artificial intelligence – TechRepublic

Can Machines And Artificial Intelligence Be Creative? – Forbes

Posted: at 6:42 pm

We know machines and artificial intelligence (AI) can be many things, but can they ever really be creative? When I interviewed Professor Marcus du Sautoy, the author of The Creativity Code, he shared that the role of AI is a kind of catalyst to push our human creativity. Its the machine and human collaboration that produces exciting resultsnovel approaches and combinations that likely wouldnt develop if either were working alone.

Can Machines And Artificial Intelligence Be Creative?

Instead of thinking about AI as replacing human creativity, it's beneficial to examine ways that AI can be used as a tool to augment human creativity. Here are several examples of how AI boosts the creativity of humans in art, music, dance, design, recipe building, and publishing.

Art

In the world of visual art, AI is making an impact in many ways. It can alter existing art such as the case when it made the Mona Lisa a living portrait a la Harry Potter, create likenesses that appear to be real humans that can be found on the website ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com and even create original works of art.

When Christies auctioned off a piece of AI artwork titled the Portrait of Edmond de Belamy for $432,500, it became the first auction house to do so. The AI algorithm, a generative adversarial network (GAN) developed by a Paris-based collective, that created the art, was fed a data set of 15,000 portraits covering six centuries to inform its creativity.

Another development that blurs the boundaries of what it means to be an artist is Ai-Da, the worlds first robot artist, who recently held her first solo exhibition. She is equipped with facial recognition technology and a robotic arm system thats powered by artificial intelligence.

More eccentric art is also a capability of artificial intelligence. Algorithms can read recipes and create images of what the final dish will look like. Dreamscope by Google uses traditional images of people, places and things and runs them through a series of filters. The output is truly original, albeit sometimes the stuff of nightmares.

Music

If AI can enhance creativity in visual art, can it do the same for musicians? David Cope has spent the last 30 years working on Experiments in Musical Intelligence or EMI. Cope is a traditional musician and composer but turned to computers to help get past composers block back in 1982. Since that time, his algorithms have produced numerous original compositions in a variety of genres as well as created Emily Howell, an AI that can compose music based on her own style rather than just replicate the styles of yesterdays composers.

In many cases, AI is a new collaborator for todays popular musicians. Sony's Flow Machine and IBM's Watson are just two of the tools music producers, YouTubers, and other artists are relying on to churn out today's hits. Alex Da Kid, a Grammy-nominated producer, used IBMs Watson to inform his creative process. The AI analyzed the "emotional temperature" of the time by scraping conversations, newspapers, and headlines over a five-year period. Then Alex used the analytics to determine the theme for his next single.

Another tool that embraces human and machine collaboration, AIVA bills itself as a creative assistant for creative people and uses AI and deep learning algorithms to help compose music.

In addition to composing music, artificial intelligence is transforming the music industry in a variety of ways from distribution to audio mastering and even creating virtual pop stars. An auxuman singer called Yona, developed by Iranian electronica composer Ash Koosha, creates and performs music such as the song Oblivious through AI algorithms.

Dance and Choreography

A powerful way dance choreographers have been able to break out of their regular patterns is to use artificial intelligence as a collaborator. Wayne McGregor, the award-winning British choreographer and director, is known for using technology in his work and is particularly fascinated by how AI could enhance what is done with the choreography in a project with Google Arts & Culture Lab. Hundreds of hours of video footage of dancers representing individual styles were fed into the algorithm. The AI then went to work and "learned how to dance. The goal is not to replace the choreographer but to efficiently iterate and develop different choreography options.

AI Augmented Design

Another creative endeavor AI is proving to be adept at is commercial design. In a collaboration between French designer Philippe Starck, Kartell, and Autodesk, a 3D software company, the first chair designed using artificial intelligence and put into production was presented at Milan Design Week. The Chair Project is another collaboration that explores co-creativity between people and machines.

Recipes

The creativity of AI is also transforming the kitchen not only by altering longstanding recipes but also creating entirely new food combinations in collaborations with some of the biggest names in the food industry. Our favorite libations might also get an AI makeover. You can now pre-order AI-developed whiskey. Brewmasters decisions are also being informed by artificial intelligence. MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is making use of all those photos of the food that we post on social media. By using computer vision, these food photos are being analyzed to better understand peoples eating habits as well as to suggest recipes with the food that is pictured.

Write Novels and Articles

Even though the amount of written material to inform artificial intelligence algorithms is voluminous, writing has been a challenging skill for AI to acquire. Although AI has been most successful in generating short-form formulaic content such as journalism "who, what, where, and when stories," its skills continue to grow. AI has now written a novel, and although neural networks created what many might find a weird read, it was still able to do it. And, with the announcement a Japanese AI programs short-form novel almost won a national literary prize, its easy to see how it wont be long before AI can compete with humans to write compelling pieces of content. Kopan Page published Superhuman Innovation, a book not only about artificial intelligence but was co-written by AI. PoemPortraits is another example of AI and human collaboration where you can provide the algorithm with a single word that it will use to generate a short poem.

As the world of AI and human creativity continue to expand, its time to stop worrying about if AI can be creative, but how the human and machine world can intersect for creative collaborations that have never been dreamt of before.

You can watch the full interview with Marcus du Sautoy here:

Follow this link:

Can Machines And Artificial Intelligence Be Creative? - Forbes

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on Can Machines And Artificial Intelligence Be Creative? – Forbes

UH Hilo receives $500K grant to research artificial intelligence interaction with humans – UH System Current News

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Travis Mandel (Photo credit: Raiatea Arcuri)

A computer scientist at the University of Hawaii at Hilo is the recipient of a more than half-a million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation aimed at developing new techniques in artificial intelligence (AI). Assistant Professor Travis Mandel, an AI expert, will use the prestigious $549,790 award to enhance research based on human-in-the-loop AI. The techniques are based on how AI and machine learning systems collaborate with humans to solve real-world problems too challenging for either to address alone.

The goal of this project is to create new algorithms and interaction paradigms that enable humans and artificial intelligence systems to work together, leveraging each others strengths to collect better data, Mandel said.

The National Science Foundation award is expected to have a major impact on research and education on Hawaii Island. The hope is to drive increased interest in science and technology at UH Hilo and showcase the universitys emerging data science program.

Im particularly excited about the opportunities this grant will provide for our talented and hardworking undergraduate students to get involved in cutting-edge computer science and data science research, Mandel said. The project also includes components that integrate research and education, such as building new data science curriculum and developing interactive video game exhibits at Imiloa Astronomy Center and the Hawaii Science and Technology Museum.

For more go to UH Hilo Stories.

Read the original post:

UH Hilo receives $500K grant to research artificial intelligence interaction with humans - UH System Current News

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on UH Hilo receives $500K grant to research artificial intelligence interaction with humans – UH System Current News

Where artificial intelligence fits in education – TechTalks

Posted: at 6:42 pm

By Sergey Karayev

Artificial Intelligence is coming for education.

But dont panic.

Its not going to replace college faculty or teaching as we know it. Its not a slippery slope. Instead, AI is going to give faculty superpowers, extending their reach and expanding their time.

A good teacher is a role model, a sage, able to become what the student needs. Teaching is too personal, too human, to be turned over to AI.

Thats not just my opinion. Three years ago, McKinsey, the global consulting firm, issued a report on how and where AI and automation was most likely to replace jobs and job functions. They listed Educational Services as the sector least likely to undergo that type of technology-dependent displacement saying, the essence of teaching is deep expertise and complex interactions with other people.

Consider also Dr. David Weiss, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota. Weiss was probably the first person in the world to use computers to give and grade assessments, work he was doing as early as 1969. As far back as the 1970s people said we could have computers deliver instruction, we wont need teachers anymore. And Im hearing that again now because so much is on computer, he said recently. But thats never been realistic. There are things computers can do well and things they cant, he said.

Thats all true and unlikely to change. Teachers teach. They are good at it. No one wants to change that.

So, the dawn of AI in teaching does not mean were on a path to robot instructors. Computers and algorithms are highly unlikely to come between faculty and students anytime in our foreseeable future.

Where AI can help today is outside the classroom, making many non-instructional responsibilities of teaching easier and faster.

As an example, the area Im working on is AI-assisted grading. When fully tested and deployed, it will be able to do things such as group student answers by their content, and batch feedback to all essentially similar responses in the blink of an eye. So instead of a teacher writing forgot to mention the Krebs cycle 50 times, they can identify the error once and write their feedback once and the AI in the tool will propagate it to other responses with the same error.

AI assessment tools can also help faculty spot sticky subject areas for subsets of students and even make student-by-student recommendations for areas of extra attention. It can spot when an unusually high percentage of students struggled with a particular question, flagging that either the specific question or the whole topic needs teacher review.

Make no mistake. This wont replace gradingteachers will still decide whats correct and what isnt. Teachers will still approve the results. They just wont need to spend as long doing it, and they will be more accurate to boot.

Used correctly, it could turn the rote process of grading into a faster, less repetitive exercise in much the same way the Scantron or optical mark recognition made scoring multiple-choice assessments faster. Neither innovation replaced teaching, they made being a teacher easier.

Think of it as the difference between using Microsoft Word or a typewriter. Computer-based typing tools such as spellcheckers and cut-and-paste did not replace writing or displace writers, they made writers better, faster, more powerful.

My point is not that automated grading tools and other AI advancements will be mundane improvements. I am confident they will be tremendously important advancements in education. What Im saying is that the AI that is coming to education will be in the support systems, freeing faculty to do more of what they love, the things computers cant do: mentor students, make intellectual connections, and inspire curious minds. Giving teachers significantly more time and energy to do those things has the potential to be a game-changer for learning.

AI can do that, and not just in grading but in

other areas too, streamlining the tasks and chores of faculty that exist largely outside and apart from person-to-person, teacher-to-student engagement. The point of AI is to make those moments more frequent and more powerfulto be a teaching superpower.

Sergey Karayev has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, is co-founder of Gradescope, and head of AI for STEM at Turnitin. He is also a co-organizer of Full Stack Deep Learning Bootcamp, which delves into best practices of all components of deep learning.

Go here to see the original:

Where artificial intelligence fits in education - TechTalks

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on Where artificial intelligence fits in education – TechTalks

The Temptations: Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Replace Broadway Shows? – Grit Daily

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Last week I went to the Imperial Theater to see Aint Too Proud, a biography in song and dance of the ultimate Motown supergroup, The Temptations. It was one of the many Broadway shows that are often overlooked in favor of heavy hitters like Cats or Wicked, but is still entertaining nonetheless.

The performance reminded me of why people go to Broadway in the first place. The music, the dancing, the acting, and the story, surprisingly, are all secondary.

The real reason we go to the theater is to experience the energy and joy of the performers who are right in front of us, operating on that tightrope where there are no second chances, no explanations or forgiveness for forgetting ones lines or moves, and instead the excitement and thrill of watching individuals living their dreams and demonstrating the greatness of the human spirit, just for us, right before our very eyes.

Theres nothing necessarily easy about getting to Broadway. First, youve got to get tickets, and two tickets to any Broadway show costs about the same as a year of Netflix or Disney Plus. Next, youve got to make your way to Midtown Manhattan, an increasingly difficult chore, since Mayor de Blasio has all but outlawed private vehicles and, somehow, made traffic even worse than ever.

Then theres the experience of being in the theater at Broadway shows, which is not how most people consume their entertainment these days. When youre at home, nobody glares at you if you leave your phone on and it beeps, buzzes, or trills. You can get up and go to the bathroom anytime, not just before or after the show, in a line of fifty strangers equally desperate to pee.

At home, on the couch, you dont have to wrestle a stranger for control of an armrest. You can sprawl as much as you like, with no one to lean on you, breathe on you, or block your view.

And yet.

When we think about the term virtual, as in virtual reality, we tend to forget that the real meaning of virtue comes from the Latin word for truth. Virtual reality is, in fact, a bit of a dirty lie. Its neither virtual (truthful) nor is it real. The performers arent sharing the same space with you.

They had countless takes in order to get their songs, dances, or emoting exactly the way they want it. If a note, or a dance step, or an entrance, or anything gets flubbed, no problem.

Take two.

Producers on Broadway shows are a smart lot. They understand that their mission in life is to give the people what they want, and above all, thats a rollicking good time. Even if you cannot pee on-demand or check your phone without experiencing the opprobrium of those around you. And if you dont like what youre watching, theres nothing else on.

Youre stuckliterally in the middle of the row and figuratively, as theres no other channel, website, or video to which you can turn. So its easy to make the case for what really shouldnt be called virtual reality and should actually be referred to as a bunch of stuff caught on video.

That said, Im hoping youll do what I did: Make your way into trafficky, crowded Midtown, pay too much for dinner, pay just enough to get good seats, and wedge yourself in between a couple of strangers and arm wrestle with them for dominance on the seat dividers, and enjoy the show.

As for The Temptations itself, if youre going to see one Broadway show, as the expression goes, you really ought to get out more often. But if you are going to see one, make it this one.

The perfection of the performance, the awesome quality of the music, the thrill of the dancing, mic tosses, and splitsyou cant get that on YouTube. Okay, yeah, you can, but you wont breathe the same air as the performers.

And if there are any performers with whom youshould share air and space, its the men and women of the cast and band of Aint Too Proud.

You can always pick up your device again afterthe show.

Read more:

The Temptations: Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Replace Broadway Shows? - Grit Daily

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on The Temptations: Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Replace Broadway Shows? – Grit Daily

Artificial Intelligence to add more than $133bn to Saudi Arabia’s GDP – Arabnews

Posted: at 6:42 pm

AL-BAHA:Ever wondered what it would be like to spend a night in a cave surrounded with nothing but the sounds of wilderness? For adventurous Saudis, its now possible and they dont even have to travel far.

In the striking Al-Baha region in the Kingdoms southwest, Saudi architect Mohammed Nasser Al-Shadwee has carved out eye-catching architectural structures in the caves that make up part of dramatic mountain terrain.

Shada Mountain, along with its caves and grottoes engraved with drawings and inscriptions dating back more than 3,000 years, is a favorite destination for Saudis who enjoy the outdoors.

Al-Shadwee told Arab News that he studied the geography, geology and topography of the mountains before designing the unique tourist accommodation, working on the project for years until his vision was realized.

Architectural structures, each with its own individual style, were carved out of the terrain, and provided with proper lighting and water.

The mountains of Al-Baha have some of the most wonderful rock formations. They are a geological and topographical masterpiece, Al-Shadwee said. Shada Mountain should be added to the list of historical geological heritage sites.

Saudi Arabias mountains are among the most beautiful in the Middle East with geological features rarely found in other mountainous areas. Shada Mountain, for example, reveals rocks in the shape of wildlife, birds and sometimes humans.

The caves were used for shelter thousands of years ago. Today, some people still use the caves as dwellings, while others have become tourist attractions.

That is why I decided to use the ancient caves, carving inns into them and trying to create more space inside, Al-Shadwee said. The process is difficult because the granite rocks are hard and make my job extremely difficult, he explained.

Al-Shadwee said that he hopes this new form of geological tourism will attract visitors from around the world.

Go here to read the rest:

Artificial Intelligence to add more than $133bn to Saudi Arabia's GDP - Arabnews

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on Artificial Intelligence to add more than $133bn to Saudi Arabia’s GDP – Arabnews

Asensys Announces Former Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence & Research at Microsoft Dr. Harry Shum as an Angel Investor – Yahoo…

Posted: at 6:42 pm

Distinguished technology leader and AI expert Dr. Harry Shum becomes an angel investor in Asensys, a novel blockchain system designed to empower the decentralized web

SEATTLE, March 5, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --Asensys, a next-generation, high-performance system that brings throughput and capacity to a new, scalable level, is pleased to announce former Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence & Research at Microsoft Dr. Harry Shum as an angel investor.

Dr. Shum is a famous AI researcher, who is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Fellow for his contributions to computer vision and computer graphics. In 2017, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering of the United States and elected an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK in 2018.

Dr. Harry Shum expressed, "Brendon and the Asensys team have developed a system to support the scaled throughput and capacity necessary to realize the promise of the decentralized Web, based on solid peer-reviewed research work on NSDI. I very much look forward to working hand-in-hand with the Asensys team to bring this solution to the forefront of internet technology innovation and ensure that our digital lives empowered by AI are secure and trustworthy."

Dr. Shum's expertise in AI will provide Asensys with an advantage in building a system that works for an increasingly AI-powered economy. AI algorithms are already deployed across finance, e-commerce, and media verticals, but the possibilities enabled by combining forces with blockchain are mostly untapped. Blockchain technology and AI together will drive the evolution of digital society with blockchain allowing for the effective application of AI without weakening data security or privacy.

Asensys Founder Dr. Brendon Wang boasts an impressive background himself, having published dozens of papers in such highly-reputed journals as ACM/TOG and USENIX/NSDI and been granted many US patents for his work. Dr. Wang formerly was a lead researcher at Microsoft Research where he focused on distributed computing systems for high-performance GPU computing and blockchain systems. He earned his PhD from the Institute of Computing Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences focusing on parallel computing and computer graphics.

"I'm honored to announce Harry Shum, as an angel investor in Asensys," said Asensys Founder Dr. Wang. "Involvement by such an acclaimed computer scientist is an unbelievable endorsement of the system we have created to address blockchain's scalability problem and provide a solid infrastructure for the decentralized Web that benefits everyone in the future."

By introducing the novel concept of Asynchronous Consensus Zones, Asensys is able to reduce redundancy of network tasks and process transactions much faster than legacy blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. When Asensys performed a test including 1,200 virtual machines worldwide to support 48,000 nodes, the Asensys system delivered 1,000 times the throughput and 2,000 times the capacity of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, as reported in the NSDI research paper.

As the Asensys team continues to develop its novel infrastructure for the decentralized Web, the involvement of Dr. Shum as an eminent technology leader and the former Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence & Research at Microsoft represents an important milestone in the project's rollout and build-up of institutional credibility.

To stay up-to-date on Asensys news and updates, visit the website: https://asensys.com/

For media inquiries, please contact Kili Wall at (310) 260-7901 or media(at)asensys(dot)com.

About Asensys Asensys is a new-generation, high-performance system that brings throughput and capacity to a new, scalable level. Asensys aims to meet the needs of the modern digital economy with its novel blockchain infrastructure that will enable web users to realize the full potential of the internet by providing the foundation upon which decentralized applications can be built.

Headquartered in Seattle, WA with a global team, Asensys was founded by Dr. Brendon (JiaPing) Wang, whose research has been published in highly-reputed journals, such as ACM/TOG, and who also has been granted many US patents for his work on distributed computing and blockchain systems. At the prestigious NSDI'19 conference, Dr. Wang and the Asensys team demonstrated how to conquer the Blockchain Trilemmathe idea that decentralization or security must be sacrificed to achieve high performance.

SOURCE Asensys

More:

Asensys Announces Former Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence & Research at Microsoft Dr. Harry Shum as an Angel Investor - Yahoo...

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on Asensys Announces Former Executive Vice President of Artificial Intelligence & Research at Microsoft Dr. Harry Shum as an Angel Investor – Yahoo…