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AI Hedge Funds, Corporate Inequality & Microdosing LSD (by Silly Rabbit)
July 11, 2019 April 18, 2017 by Ben Hunt
Machines and suchlike
DARPA has produced a 15 minute AI explainer video. A fair review: "Artificial intelligence is grossly misunderstood. It's a rare clear-eyed look into the guts of AI that's also simple enough for most non-technical folks to follow. It's dry, but IRL computer science is pretty dry." Well worth watching for orientation on where we are — and where we are not — with AI today.
In case you are interested in 'AI hedge funds' and haven't come across them, Sentient should be on your radar. And Walnut Algorithms, too. They look to be taking quite different AI approaches, but at some point, presumably, AI trading will become a recognized category. Interesting that the Walnut article asserts — via EurekaHedge — that "there are at least 23 'AI Hedge Funds' with 12 actively trading". Hmm …
[Ed. note — double hmm … present company excepted, there's a lot less than meets the eye here. IMO.]
On the topic of Big Compute, I'm a big believer in the near-term opportunity of usefully incorporating quantum compute into live systems for certain tasks within the next couple of years and so opening up practical solutions to whole new classes of previously intractable problems. Nice explanation of 'What Makes Quantum Computers Powerful Problem Solvers' here.
[Ed. note — for a certain class of problems (network comparisons, for example) which just happen to be core to Narrative and mass sentiment analysis, the power of quantum computing versus non-quantum computing is the power of 2n versus n2. Do the math.]
Quick overview paper on Julia programming language here. Frankly, I've never come across Julia (that I know of) in the wild out here on the west coast, but I see the attraction for folks coming from a Matlab-type background and where 'prototype research' and 'production engineering' are not cleanly split. Julia seems, to some extent, to be targeting trading-type 'quants', which makes sense.
Paper overview: "The innovation of Julia is that it addresses the need to easily create new numerical algorithms while still executing fast. Julia's creators noted that, before Julia, programmers would typically develop their algorithms in MATLAB, R or Python, and then re-code the algorithms into C or FORTRAN for production speed. Obviously, this slows the speed of developing usable new algorithms for numerical applications. In testing of seven basic algorithms, Julia is impressively 20 times faster than Python, 100 times faster than R, 93 times faster than MATLAB, and 1.5 times faster than FORTRAN. Julia puts high-performance computing into the hands of financial quants and scientists, and frees them from having to know the intricacies of high-speed computer science". Julia Computing website link here.
Humans and suchlike
This HBR article on 'Corporation in the Age of Inequality" is, in itself, pretty flabby, but the TLDR soundbite version is compelling: "The real engine fueling rising income inequality is "firm inequality". In an increasingly … winner-take-most economy the … most-skilled employees cluster inside the most successful companies, their incomes rising dramatically compared with those of outsiders." On a micro-level I think we are seeing an acceleration of this within technology-driven firms (both companies and funds).
[Ed. note — love TLDR. It's what every other ZeroHedge commentariat writer says about Epsilon Theory!]
A great — if nauseatingly 'rah rah' — recent book with cutting-edge thinking on getting your company's humans to be your moat is: Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work. Warning: Microdosing hallucinogens and going to Burning Man are strongly advocated!
Finally, on the human-side, I have been thinking a lot about 'talent arbitrage' for advanced machine learning talent (i.e., how to not to slug it out with Google, Facebook et al. in the Bay Area for every hire) and went on a bit of world-tour to various talent markets over the past couple of months. My informal perspective: Finland, parts of Canada and Oxford (UK) are the best markets in the world right now—really good talent that have been way less picked-over. Does bad weather and high taxes give rise to high quality AI talent pools? Kind of, in a way, probably.
Categories Note, Narrative, Rabbit HoleTags AI, algorithms, artificial intelligence, big compute, hedge funds, quantum computing, technology, HBR, income inequality, Julia, talent, PremiumLeave a comment
You Had One Job
July 11, 2019 November 3, 2016 by Ben Hunt
Lots more where this came from on you-had-one-job.com. Of course I think these pix and this meme are hilarious. But then I start to think about whether or not alternative investment strategies have done their job. I start to think about what that job is. And I go hmmm …
Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?
― Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations" (180 AD)
Cesar Millan, dog whisperer. The show can be silly, but I'm a fan. If you want to boil his advice down into one phrase, it's this: every dog needs a job.
It's true for the pack, and it's true for the portfolio.
I know he doesn't look like much, but Karnak is the most powerful superhero of them all. His ability? To see the flaw in all things. That includes death and philosophies. That includes himself. When he's not begrudgingly saving the world, Karnak spends most of his time staring at blocks of stone.
One of Karnak's flaws is that he can't lead. No one follows a man who sees exactly what's wrong with you. But he'd make a great short-seller.
Again. Sadder than was. Again. Saddest of all. Again.
― William Faulkner, "The Sound and the Fury" (1929)
How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home.
― William Faulkner, "As I Lay Dying" (1930)
Memory believes before knowing remembers.
― William Faulkner, "Light in August" (1932)
The past is never dead. It's not even past.
― William Faulkner, "Requiem for a Nun" (1951)
A Great Rabbi stands, teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death.
There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine — a Speaker for the Dead — has told me of two other Rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you.
The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. 'Is there any man here,' he says to them, 'who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?'
They murmur and say, 'We all know the desire, but Rabbi none of us has acted on it.'
The Rabbi says, 'Then kneel down and give thanks that God has made you strong.' He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, 'Tell the Lord Magistrate who saved his mistress, then he'll know I am his loyal servant.'
So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.
Another Rabbi. Another city. He goes to her and stops the mob as in the other story and says, 'Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.'
The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. 'Someday,' they think, 'I may be like this woman. And I'll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her as I wish to be treated.'
As they opened their hands and let their stones fall to the ground, the Rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman's head and throws it straight down with all his might. It crushes her skull and dashes her brain among the cobblestones. 'Nor am I without sins,' he says to the people, 'but if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead — and our city with it.'
So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.
The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis and when they veer too far they die. Only one Rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation.
So of course, we killed him.
– San Angelo, "Letters to an Incipient Heretic"
― Orson Scott Card, "Speaker for the Dead" (1986)
It takes a village to manage a portfolio. Or a country. Discipline to maintain process. Flexibility to tolerate deviance … err, I mean tracking error. We need better Rabbis. Who we don't kill.
In all cases, not only in the two which we have analyzed, recovery came of itself. But this is not all: our analysis leads us to believe that recovery is sound only if it does come of itself. For any revival which is merely due to artificial stimulus leaves part of the work of depressions undone and adds, to an undigested remnant of maladjustment, new maladjustment of its own which has to be liquidated in turn, thus threatening business with another crisis ahead. Particularly, our story provides a presumption against remedial measures which work through money and credit. For the trouble is fundamentally not with money and credit, and policies of this class are particularly apt to keep up, and add to, maladjustment, and to produce additional trouble in the future.
― Joseph Schumpeter, "Depressions: Can we learn from past experience" (1934)
Schumpeter famously wrote that his personal goals were to be the smartest economist in Europe, the finest horseman in Austria, and the most accomplished lover in Vienna. He judged these to be equally difficult and equally praiseworthy achievements. I think he overrated the whole economist thing.
Marsellus: The thing is, Butch, right now you got ability. But painful as it may be, ability don't last. And your days are just about over. Now that's a hard motherfn' fact of life, but that's a fact of life you're gonna have to get realistic about. See, this business is filled to the brim with unrealistic motherf'rs. Motherf'rs who thought their ass would age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean it gets better with age, it don't. Besides, Butch, how many fights do you think you got in you anyhow? Two? Boxers don't have an Old Timers Place. You came close but you never made it. And if you were gonna make it, you would have made it before now. [holds out the envelope of cash just out of Butch's reach] You're mine, dig?
Butch: It certainly appears so.
― "Pulp Fiction" (1994)
Like boxing and organized crime, our business is filled to the brim with unrealistic motherf'rs.
This is the line that haunts me: if you were gonna make it, you would have made it before now.
The Hunt family has three dogs, each with a distinct job. The German Shephard's job is to protect. The Sheltie's job is to herd. The Golden's job is to love. Each dog is very good at its job, sometimes in an annoying way (particularly the Sheltie), but they're oh-so happy with what they do well, and it fits our entire family dynamic. There are sacrifices we make for having this particular pack, like we can't have any other dogs drop in for a visit or else the German Shephard might eat them, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. We're a solid pack, and there's nothing quite like that feeling of knowing that the dogs are there for you and you for them, and that the entire Hunt family — human and dog alike — is stronger not just in fact but in spirit for giving ourselves over to the pack.
It's the same with investment portfolios. Every dog needs a job, and every investment does, too. No single dog can be all things to all people, and neither can a single investment. Nor can any pack of dogs accomplish anything and everything you like. The biggest mistake people make when they get a dog is trying to make the dog fit into the life they wish they led, rather than the life they actually lead. You better know thyself before you get a dog, much less a couple of dogs, and it's exactly the same thing with making an investment. But if you get it right … man, there's nothing better. Like a confident pack, a confident portfolio provides both strength in fact, as well as — and this is the part I bet you're missing right now and the focus of this note — strength in spirit.
In my experience, most people don't particularly like their portfolios, much less get a lift from them. They tolerate their portfolios. They may be pleased enough with the performance, but they don't get a psychic boost from their portfolios. They don't enjoy the confidence and strength of spirit that a solid pack or a solid portfolio can provide. And before you say that this really doesn't matter to you, that so long as your portfolio performs up to a certain standard you couldn't really care less whether it provides any "psychic strength" or any such mumbo-jumbo hogwash, let me stop you to say that you're not just wrong, you're completely wrong. In truth, the only thing that matters to you about your portfolio is its psychic reward, the positive way it makes you feel.
Now don't misunderstand me. Performance is part of that psychic reward, usually the biggest part. But in the same way that the Economic Machine is part of a larger social phenomenon that I call the Narrative Machine, in the same way that Newtonian physics is part of a larger set of natural laws called Einsteinian physics, in the same way that Game Theory is part of a larger intellectual construct called Information Theory, so is "performance enjoyment" part of a larger behavioral attitude toward our portfolios. I first wrote about all this in Epsilon Theory with "It's Not About the Nail" and "It's (Still) Not About the Nail", and it's high time I picked up on this thread as part of the current "Anthem!" series.
The place where I see the greatest dissatisfaction or lack of spirit in most portfolios is in the allocation to alternative strategies. Most model portfolios that come down from on high at the big wealth management firms suggest that alternative strategies should be anywhere from 10-20% of a portfolio. But in fact most actual portfolios for actual clients have a small fraction of the recommended allocation, say 3-4% at most. Why the disconnect?
To answer that question, let me start by telling you what the answer is not. The answer is NOT that financial advisors or professional investors need more "education" about the virtues of an alternatives-heavy portfolio. I think that this focus on "education" is the single most tone-deaf and semi-condescending aspect of the business of modern investment management, which I suppose is a pretty bold statement given the sheer number of tone-deaf and semi-condescending things in our line of work. But there you go. I see it every day. Another email, another webinar, another white paper, another earnest effort to "educate" financial advisors about alternatives, with, let's be honest, the unspoken implication that you are kinda stupid if you don't have a heaping plate of alternatives in your portfolio.
It's not that any of these "educational" efforts are wrong. They speak the truth, albeit a bloodless, overly scientificized truth. But the truth is also that financial advisors have had a poor experience with alternative investment strategies, and once burned twice shy. Why burned? Because A) they've been pushed onto financial advisors as some sort of wonder dog that can be all things to all portfolios, and B) they've been pulled into portfolios by financial advisors who were thinking more about the portfolio and clients that they wish they had rather than the portfolio and clients that they actually have.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on point A because it's obviously egregious and I see this changing for the better in my conversations with financial advisors. They are still inundated with semi-condescending "educational" materials from every possible source, but at least the content of those materials today is a lot more even-handed about the specific job that alternative strategies can perform in a portfolio, as opposed to promising the investment equivalent of Scrappy Doo, Scooby's far more competent crime-fighting nephew. Pro tip: if you're offered a walking, talking dog to fill out your pack, you should hold onto your wallet.
Its point B that I think is a bit less obvious and one that needs more explication. Basically I think what's happened is that a lot of financial advisors and serious investors believe they know the job that alternatives can help provide for a portfolio — diversification — and they really want that for their portfolio. But they set themselves up for failure, where the alternative strategies in their portfolio don't FEEL satisfying even if the performance is okay, in two important ways.
First, they're mistaking a quality of the portfolio — diversification — for a job of an individual investment. Asking an investment to provide diversification is like asking a dog to provide pack stability. It's just not within their power to do this. Portfolio diversification and pack stability emerge from the proper organization and job assignment of the individual members of the portfolio or pack, not the other way around. If someone tells you that their alternative strategy is "a diversifier", your question should be "Relative to what?" if you're in a generous mood, something a little more snippy if you're not. The question you need answered is what job does the strategy perform in your portfolio. How should I expect it to behave under what conditions? Then you can decide for yourself how that job fits with the other jobs your other investments are doing. Then you can evaluate this potential new member of your pack in a non-alienated fashion, focusing on its fit within the whole rather than its standalone attributes.
Second, they're judging this alternative strategy versus that alternative strategy on the basis of standalone historical performance, alienated from the psychological meaning that the overall portfolio composition — the pack — plays in their client's or their own life. Alternative strategies in this conception are a line item in the portfolio, a tasty-looking dish that one orders from a 10-page diner menu, a beautiful exotic dog breed that one reads about in The New York Times Style Magazine.
Odds are that you'll be disappointed with that exotic dog, through no fault of the dog and actually, through no fault of yours. Odds are that you'll be disappointed with that fancy alternative strategy, similarly through no fault of the strategy or you. Why? Because human rationality is based on Bayesian decision-making, a $10 phrase that means we make up our minds as we go along and new information comes our way. Maybe that dog is, in truth, perfect for you and your life. But maybe it's not. I mean, you got all excited about the breed from an article you read in the NYT Style Magazine. Are you crazy? Maybe that alternative strategy is a perfect diversifying complement for your portfolio. But maybe it's not. I mean, you got all excited about the fund because the manager sounded really smart. Really? Did you really make THAT mistake again?
My point is that we start any standalone investment from a position of self-doubt, and from a Bayesian perspective it takes a lot of evidence before we come to any conclusion as to whether we made a good original decision or not. Even then our conclusions are never final or definitive in a Bayesian approach, because there's always a chance that new information will come to light that shifts our opinion. Moreover, the qualities of portfolio diversification and pack stability take quite a bit of time to emerge. If you think you see these qualities right off the bat, or conversely you think you see something that shows this is a disaster, you're usually mistaken. In fact, with both dogs and alternative investment strategies, by the time you've received enough information to judge for sure whether or not you've actually got a "good one" or a "bad one", it's almost always too late to make a switch or do anything differently about it. Put it all together, and we stay in this position of self-doubt on an effectively permanent basis.
It's what I call The Curse of (Some) Talent, and it's one of the most pernicious aspects not only of investing, but of the human condition. It's embodied in Butch, the Bruce Willis character in Pulp Fiction, a boxer who's a pretty good fighter but is now getting a little long in the tooth. As Marsellus Wallace, the crime boss who bribes Butch to take a dive, says, "if you were gonna make it, you would have made it before now." Butch has (some) talent, enough to become a professional fighter. But he doesn't have enough talent to really succeed, to really make it big. I recognize Butch in myself, which is what makes this scene so haunting. Here I am, 52 years old, sitting in a hotel room far away from home on another business trip, writing this note. If I was gonna make it, wouldn't I have made it before now? I recognize Butch in all the really smart portfolio managers I know, each of whom runs what seems like a really interesting strategy that for whatever reason hasn't made them a Master of the Universe. If they were gonna make it, wouldn't they have made it before now? Clearly they have (some) talent. Do they have enough to be an individual star? And if that's what I need from them or if that's how I'm evaluating them, then how in the world do I muster up the confidence to take the chance that they do? How in the world do I maintain the confidence to keep them in my portfolio when the winds of chance blow against me or them, something that will always happen at some point?
I think that most financial advisors or serious investors know exactly what I'm talking about here, and this is why most of them are waaaay under-allocated to what investment "science" and their model portfolios and their own voices inside their heads tell them should be their "proper" allocation to alternative strategies. If we're evaluating these strategies on a standalone, line-item basis, plagued by the self-doubt inherent in Bayesian decision-making and the other-doubt inherent in the Curse of (Some) Talent, then the mystery isn't why current allocations to alternatives are so low at 3-4%, but why they're so high!
So here's what I think is a better way to think about portfolio construction, one that puts not only alternative strategies but ALL strategies in their proper place, which is in service to the pack. That's your responsibility, too, by the way. The pack always comes first.
Step One. Every investment in the portfolio must have a job, meaning that we expect each investment to do certain things under certain circumstances. This means that we have to imagine what those future circumstances might be. Here are two scenarios that I think we should wrestle with.
The Long Gray Slog: a continuation of the current investment status quo, where central banks continue to squelch the volatility out of markets in their continuing efforts to turn markets and the entire macro-economy into political utilities. Business cycles and bear markets are effectively outlawed, but the imposition of a floor also imposes a ceiling. It's 1% GDP growth and zero on your savings and flat to slightly up markets just as far as the eye can see.
Fire & Ice: a political event that sets the global economy on a new deflationary leg down, which in turn creates a global credit freeze and liquidity concerns at systemically important European banks. This is Ice. But central banks of the modern ilk refuse to back down, unleashing a wave of bank nationalizations, negative interest rates, and helicopter money drops of various sorts, all designed to force asset prices higher by sheer dint of printing and distributing vast quantities of fiat currencies. This is Fire. You don't get the Fire without the Ice, and I need strategies that can survive both.
Step Two: Now that we've identified the scenarios we think we might face, we need to figure out what sort of portfolio can survive or thrive under these circumstances. How do we do that? By immersing ourselves in the stories of investors who survived and thrived during Long Gray Slogs or Fire & Ice scenarios of the past. By developing a sense of empathy for what it felt like to invest during, say, the 1930s or the 1970s or (for the younger crowd) the 2000s. This is how we figure out what sort of pack supports the life we want to live when confronted by these circumstances. This is how we figure out what strategies — in complement with each other — can create that pack with strength of spirit as well as strength of performance.
We gain this sense of empathy in two ways. We talk to old-timers (for much of my audience, that's anyone older than 40), and we read. We read a lot. We read biographies. We read memoirs. We read old newspapers and old magazines, as much primary material as we can. We read and we talk, not in the modern cynical way of gotcha and tsk-tsk and eye-roll, but in older ways of trying to understand the WHY and the FEEL, not just the WHAT and the FACT. It's a Faulknerian effort of trying to understand the past on a visceral level, such that it's part of the living us and not "the past" at all. Empathy means putting yourself in someone else's shoes, and it's one of the hardest, least taught skills in the modern age of narcissism and self-absorption. But it's also one of the most important. I hire history majors.
What strategies have I found that perform specific, useful jobs in these scenarios? Keep in mind that this is for a portfolio that works for me and my family and the life we've chosen. We're not like everyone. We live out in the woods in Fairfield County, CT. We homeschool our kids. We have sheep and goats and horses. Your kids will have a blast when they visit, but if you bring over your dog, it might be killed by our dogs. Just kidding on that last one. Kind of.
On the Long Gray Slog side, for me it's basically what's worked for the last several years, strategies that either harvest global betas in a cheap, efficient, preferably volatility-controlled way, or strategies that "play the player" in a trend-following or discretionary way. Especially the discretionary stuff, but then again I'm a discretionary global macro kind of guy. That's who I am. Also, in a more or less permanently low growth world, any sort of secular growth and real cash flows from real economic activity is something to be treasured. See my "Hobson's Choice" and "Cat's Cradle" notes for more.
The Fire & Ice scenario is perhaps a little more contentious, but only because we've been living so completely in the Long Gray Slog for the past few years. My take on Fire & Ice is pretty simple. I want as close to direct ownership as possible of real assets with real cash flows. My definition of real assets is pretty broad, including not just the obvious choices like infrastructure and real estate, but also intellectual property and gold. Yes, I know that gold doesn't have intrinsic cash flows. Neither does an insurance policy (which is what gold is against central bank error), and I like insurance. A lot of people are fans of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for a Fire & Ice scenario. I'm not (you can read my views here). Basically I'm looking for maximum resiliency, what Nassim Taleb would call antifragile, in the jobs I want my portfolio holdings to perform in a Fire & Ice scenario. And remember, in my scenario, Fire comes last and it can go on and on. Bond holders beware. This is where the right discretionary calls on global macro, particularly on the short side where you get the timing right on long-volatility bets, can make a career. This is when you want Karnak on your team.
As an aside … well, not so much of an aside, because it's central to the Epsilon Theory effort … this embrace of empathy and the true lessons of the past is exactly what our central bankers are NOT doing. I put a long quote by Joseph Schumpeter at the start of the note just to show that there have been some other really smart people in the past who suffered through really similar macro-economic situations and looked carefully at empirical evidence and came to diametrically opposed conclusions on what monetary policy should and shouldn't do as a response. What we are told today is the Truth with a capital T in regards to monetary policy is nothing of the sort. It's a particular sort of truth, an ex cathedra pronouncement by cultists like Ben Bernanke and his academic acolytes, cherrypicking historical data about the U.S. in the '30s or Japan in the '90s that fits their tautological world view and rejecting the rest, brooking no dissent. It's a mongrel pack of policies that provides neither strength in fact nor strength in spirit to the citizens it's supposed to support and protect. That's a lot of mixed metaphors, but you get my point. And my disgust. Just remember that Greenspan used to be lauded as a hero, too. Today not so much. Today he's the man who knew, as in the man who knew better. Okay, rant concluded for today.
Step Three: So I know what sort of portfolio I want for the sort of future scenarios I might encounter. I know what jobs I need filled in that portfolio and I've got a sense of the strategies that can best do those jobs. Now how do I choose between specific strategies or managers or what have you? How do I avoid that whole Curse of (Some) Talent thing? Here's what I'm not doing. I'm not evaluating historical track records, projecting those into the future in some sort of crystal ball, capital markets return prediction effort, and then rolling those individual calculations up into some aggregate portfolio projection. I think that's nuts. Instead, I'm asking whether the manager has a clear idea of what makes the strategy work (or not). What is the job that the manager performs and under what conditions does he or she perform it? Then I evaluate those claims in a Bayesian way. The most important evidence: did the manager do this job before? As advertised and for realz, not in a backtest. What was the investor experience within that prior job performance? How did it feel? Almost as important from a Bayesian perspective, does the manager have a stable, visible process? Does the process impose a discipline of sticking to the principles of the strategy come hell or high water, while also handling uncertainty and deviation in a calm and intellectually rigorous way? That's how I judge real talent, the talent that ultimately matters most, in others and in myself. Fortune is fickle, even for the most talented. Experience and process never is.
The hardest part about Step Three is saying no to a talented manager, a good Rabbi for the strategy he administers, because the strategy doesn't do the required job for the portfolio you actually have, as opposed to the portfolio you wish you had. In truth, that's the hardest part about this entire process, the monomaniacal focus on what's best for the portfolio as a whole, given the challenges it might face in the future. But in the same way that we require (or should require) discipline in our managers, we should absolutely require that discipline in ourselves as financial advisors or serious investors. It's what creates a confident client/advisor relationship, it's what creates a confident investor/manager relationship, it's what turns any collection of individuals, man or beast, into a well-functioning pack.
Ultimately, that's what we're after here. The protection of the pack. It's been the human animal's source of strength, in both fact and spirit, for a couple of hundred thousand years now. I think we're going to need it over the next few years, too.
Categories Note, Adaptive InvestingTags diversification, talent, Bayesian, dogs, empathy, Faulkner, Karnak, Marsellus, portfolio, Pulp Fiction, rabbi, Schumpeter, PremiumLeave a comment


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These Are the Oldest Known Footprints on the Planet
An international team of researchers is claiming to have discovered the world's oldest footprints. Dating back a whopping 550 million years and found in a limestone bed in China, the prints were made by an unknown sea creature.
Fossils from the Ediacaran Period, sometimes called the Vendian Period, are exceptionally rare. The few animals that lived during this bygone era, between 635 million and 541 million years ago, were exclusively soft shelled, featuring no bones, teeth, or hard shells. Soft tissues aren't prone to fossilisation, since they degrade quickly after death, so scientists have only a shady conception of what some of our planet's earliest animals were like.
The Ediacaran was the period immediately before the Cambrian Explosion (541 million to 510 million years ago), a time when life underwent rapid diversification. But aside from bacteria and green algae, there were some animals of note from the Ediacaran Period. Some of Earth's first burrowing creatures emerged during this time, as evidenced by the fossilised burrows themselves. As to what the creatures that dug these holes looked like, we can only guess. That said, palaeontologists have found slither marks etched onto the surfaces of ancient rock, a hint that worm-like animals were slithering and burrowing so very long ago.
Clearly, complex animals were starting to emerge during the Ediacaran Period, including animals with symmetrical body plans. Known as bilaterian organisms, these animals featured a head, tail, back, and stomach. And for some, a symmetrical body also involved paired sets of appendages. New research published this week in Science Advances reveals the fossilised footprints left by one of these early creatures, and it's considered the oldest known trackway made by a bilaterian creature with paired appendages.
The Shibantan fossil, as it's called, was found in the Dengying Formation of China's Yangtze Gorges area. During the Ediacaran, this landmass was at the bottom of an ancient sea. Using a well-established, uranium-led dating technique, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Virginia Tech dated the fossil to between 551 million and 541 million years ago. Carved in limestone, the trackways consist of two rows of imprints arranged in repeated groups.
The researchers, led by Zhe Chen and Shuhai Xiao, say it's highly likely the prints were produced by a bilaterian animal with paired appendages, but they know very little beyond that. The nature of the footprints suggests the creature was able to lift its body above the sediment at the bottom of the ocean. Also, the trackways appear to be connected to burrows, suggesting the presence of complex behaviours. This animal, it's theorised, dug into sediments and microbial mats (layered sheets of microorganisms) in search of food and gulps of oxygen.
"If similar connections between trackways and burrows are confirmed with additional examples in the future, it can be inferred that the Shibantan trace maker may have been capable of burrowing beneath and walking atop microbial mats," write the researchers in their study.
Indeed, we won't know for sure until more fossils are discovered. For now, we'll just have to be content to imagine what life was like long before we humans emerged. [Science Advances]
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A Bizarre Bone Ritual Followed a Grisly Iron Age Battle in Denmark

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN OR ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH IT WOULD BE UNLAWFUL TO DO SO.
PetroNeft (AIM: PTR) owner and operator of Licences 61 and 67, Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, is pleased to announce a funding and operations update.
PetroNeft has agreed the terms of a conditional placing of 62,325,631 new Ordinary Shares at Stg£0.05 per Ordinary Share (the "Placing Shares"), raising gross proceeds of approximately US$5.2 million (the "Placing").
The Placing, which was oversubscribed, has been arranged by Davy and is conditional, inter alia, on admission of such Ordinary Shares to trading on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM") and the ESM Market of the Irish Stock Exchange ("ESM").
The Company will apply for admission of the Placing Shares to be traded on the AIM and ESM. It is expected that Admission will take place and that trading will commence on or around 19 March 2014.
PetroNeft has also agreed an additional US$1.5 million debt drawdown with Arawak Energy by increasing the existing US$15 million loan to US$16.5 million on the same terms (maturity and interest) as the existing loan. PetroNeft has granted Arawak an additional 2,000,000 warrants over Ordinary Shares at a strike price of US$0.0891 per Ordinary Share.
Under the Macquarie agreement, the bank will have the right from 15 April 2014 to ask for Licence 61 to be put up for sale in its entirety in a competitive process (as well as their other normal rights as lender) if the farmout of Licence 61 is not completed at that date.
PetroNeft continues to make solid progress with the large international oil and gas company referred to in our January update. The proposed deal is structured to enable PetroNeft to repay all of its debts (Macquarie and Arawak), have cash for working capital purposes and significant funds available to invest directly in Licence 61 over the coming years. It will also bring an internationally recognised, financially strong partner with a strong technical team and wide ranging experience around the globe in various hydrocarbon plays. Based on the current progress of confirmatory legal and accounting due diligence and legal documentation, we expect to finalise this transaction in the coming weeks.
Once the farmout is completed, plans are in place to drill additional production wells at Arbuzovskoye and delineation wells at Tungolskoye and Sibkrayevskoye, where significant upside potential and near-term developments are possible. The funds raised will ensure all of the necessary supplies and equipment are moved into place during the winter period and for field operations to commence upon completion of the farmout.
Production is currently around 2,400 bopd following the successful completion of some workovers. Our water injection programme continues to function effectively and overall well performance is in accordance with expectations.
"We are pleased with the fundraising which will allow us to purchase and transport materials to the field this winter to conduct a full scope of work in 2014 following completion of the farmout.
We have also made significant progress on the farmout in the past month and anticipate that it will be completed at the end of Q1 or shortly thereafter."
This Announcement is for information purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to buy, sell, issue, or subscribe for, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell, issue, or subscribe for any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction, including, without limitation, the United States, Canada or Japan, in which such offer, solicitation or sale is or may be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction (a "Prohibited Jurisdiction"). This Announcement and the information contained herein are not for publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, to persons in a Prohibited Jurisdiction unless permitted pursuant to an exemption under the relevant local law or regulation in any such jurisdiction. This Announcement has been issued by and is the sole responsibility of the Company.
Davy, which is regulated in Ireland by the Central Bank of Ireland, is acting for the Company and for no-one else in connection with the Placing, and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to customers of Davy or for providing advice to any other person in relation to the Placing or any other matter referred to herein.
The distribution of this announcement and the offering of the Placing Shares in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. No action has been taken by PetroNeft or Davy that would permit an offering of such shares or possession or distribution of this announcement or any other offering or publicity material relating to such shares in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required by PetroNeft and Davy to inform themselves about, and to observe such restrictions.
The Placing Shares to be issued pursuant to the Placing will not be admitted to trading on any stock exchange other than AIM and the ESM. Neither the content of PetroNeft's website nor any website accessible by hyperlinks on PetroNeft's website is incorporated in, or forms part of, this announcement.


"Qekele suggested that my eyes should be gored (gouged out) because when the police take photos of a deceased person the perpetrator's impression normally remains in the eyes of the dead person.
"Qekele pricked my right eye with a sharp instrument and something watery oozed out.
"I could not see what it was because it was already dark. I was hit with a pick handle and I fell down. The suspects argued whether to set me alight.
"Qekele suggested that my throat should be slit. They used a nail clipper," she said.
"They dragged me towards a ditch. My face was covered with dry grass."
She overhead the men saying that the bodies of Qwarana and Tengile were already "cold".


I don't know what is about true crime that I find so fascinating but I do. From murder stories to missing person cases I am always reading/watching/listening to things about these topics. I never really knew that podcasts about true crime existed until a bit over a year ago someone introduced me to My Favorite Murder. I was immediately hooked and that send me down the podcast rabbit hole of all things true crime. I've talked about this on Instagram a bit so I thought I would share my favorites + I asked my audience to share their faves as well so I'll add those to the bottom! To find these, just search the names in whatever app you use to listen to podcasts!
These are the podcasts that were so good I binged all the back episodes in a week or two so I could get caught up and listen in real time when they come out!
UP AND VANISHED: I LOVE LOVE LOVE loved this podcast. The first season is about the disappearance of Tara Grinstead (the pageant queen/teacher from Georgia) and is downright FASCINATING. Payne, the host, has the voice of an angel and this is my favorite one to listen to before bed. Season 2 is about the disappearance of Kristal Anne Reisinger, it's just as fascinating.
MY FAVORITE MURDER: Does this one really need an explanation? I feel like anyone in the true crime realm has heard of it. If not, it's two hilarious women who discuss murders. There is a lot of comedy up in here but they're respectful to the victims and their families of course.
HELL AND GONE: This is one that I just started bingeing and couldn't stop until I was done. This is a private investigator who goes back to her hometown in the Arkansas Ozarks to investigate the brutal murder of Rebekah Gould. She does such an awesome job discussing this case that I was HOOKED.
MISSING MAURA MURRAY: If I had to pick one podcast to listen to and never listen to another again it would be this one. It dives into the disappearance of Maura Murray. It's fascinating and frustrating. She just vanished. I highly recommend this one.
DIRTY JOHN: Crazy. That's the only thing I have to describe this one. Dirty John is based on the life of John Meehan, a con artist and sociopath. It's since been turned into a mini-series on Bravo that is equally as crazy.
I GOT THE HELL OUT: This isn't really a true crime in the sense of murder BUT I feel like it still fits in this realm. It's two women who are discussing the ones time in a cult. From what she experienced to how she got out. If you like cult stuff. This is for you.
WITHOUT WARNING: I am currently in the middle of bingeing this one and can not stop. Lauren Agee attended Wakefest in Smithville, TN with some friends. On the last day without warning Lauren's life was gone in an instant. Join Professional Investigator Sheila Wysocki as she takes back the curtain to go behind the scenes of an investigation. You decide who is telling the truth, who isn't, what happened to the evidence, and what happened with the police investigation. See what Lauren's mom, Sherry Smith has to do in order to speak for her daughter. Was it murder or a tragic accident, you decide. True Crime in real time.
CRAWLSPACE: Crawlspace is a true crime podcast from the guys who brought you Missing Maura Murray. Lance and Tim continue to dive as deep as possible into missing persons cases, murders, robberies, and family mysteries; while filming a documentary about their quest. Current cases: Brianna Maitland's 2004 disappearance The 1918 unsolved murder of William Dean The John Giuca wrongful conviction case The Vanishing Men of Boston.
JUICING THE PEOPLE: Juicing The People v. O.J. Simpson – The talk show that juices the events surrounding the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Every week hosts Adam Papagan and JJ Stratford review ESPN's OJ Made in America and fact check it against their memories as Los Angeles natives who grew up obsessed and mutated by the ultimate media circus.
MISSING & MURDERED: The first season of this covered Alberta Williams and it's now moved on to Where is Cleo? Taken by child welfare workers in the 1970's and adopted in the U.S., the young Cree girl's family says she was stolen, raped and murdered while trying to hitchhike back home to Saskatchewan. Host Connie Walker joins their search.
COLD: Susan Powell disappeared from her home in December of 2009. Her body has never been found. The man suspected of killing her was never arrested or charged. This begins the complete story of the search for Susan.
S TOWN: S-Town is a new podcast from Serial and This American Life, hosted by Brian Reed, about a man named John who despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who's allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But when someone else ends up dead, the search for the truth leads to a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man's life.
These are the podcasts that have a ton of episodes so I listen to the new ones when they come out but you don't really have to listen in any particular order so I just skip around and find one that's interesting. OR they're newer ones (to me) that I've just started and have been enjoying.
CASEFILE: Casefile True Crime Podcast, or simply Casefile, is a weekly true crime themed podcast that first aired in Australia in January 2016 and hosted by an Australian man who remains anonymous. The series deals with solved or cold criminal cases, often related to well-known murders and serial crimes.
AND THAT'S WHY WE DRINK: Murder and the paranormal finally meet! Grab your wine and milkshakes and join us every Sunday for some chilling ghost stories and downright terrifying true crime stories. The world's a scary place. And that's why we drink!
CRIME JUNKIE: Crime Junkie is a weekly podcast dedicated to giving you a true crime fix. Every Monday, Ashley Flowers will tell you about whatever crime she's been obsessing over that week in a way that sounds like you're sitting around talking crime with your best friends. The storytelling is straightforward and free of rabbit holes so the cases stay suspenseful and are easy to follow. If you can never get enough true crime… Congratulations, you're a Crime Junkie! You've found your people.
CRIME AFTER CRIME: A monthly podcast where two true crime YouTubers, Danelle Hallan and John Lordan, challenge each other to tell the best story about a true crime related topic. Listeners voting online will determine the winner.
CRIMINAL: Criminal is a podcast about crime. Not so much the "if it bleeds, it leads," kind of crime. Something a little more complex. Stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, and/or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. We are a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows.
CRIMINALITEA: A true crime podcast focusing on lesser known and historical crimes, stories of which are best enjoyed with a lovely cup of hot, strong tea.
HOLLYWOOD & CRIME: This podcast covers the most famous murders in tinseltown history!
LORE: Our fears have roots. Lore exposes the darker side of history, exploring the creatures, people, and places of our wildest nightmares. Because sometimes the truth is more frightening than fiction.
MILE HIGHER PODCAST: Mile Higher Podcast hosted by husband and wife duo Josh Thomas & Kendall Rae! Our show is focused on Crime & Conspiracies but we delve into many other topics including unexplained phenomena, metaphysics, futurism, ancient civilizations and news stories the lamestream media doesn't cover. Our guests include experts in these topics as well as like-minded individuals who share our passion for uncovering the truth and exploring the mysteries of our universe. We never changed we just woke up and so can you. Come chill with us every Monday and prepare to take your mind a mile higher!
MONSTER: Previously called Atlanta Monster it has become just Monster. From Tenderfoot TV and HowStuffWorks, 'Monster: The Zodiac Killer' dives into one of the most notorious, unsolved serial killing sprees in history. Despite sketches, cyphers and taunting letters to the press, the question still remains: who is the Zodiac? While you're here, don't forget to listen to Season 1, 'Atlanta Monster', which tells the true story of one of Atlanta's darkest secrets, almost 40 years later.
MURDER DICTIONARY: A new theme each week with two hilarious ladies discussing!
ONCE UPON A CRIME: THE podcast for the true crime addict. True crime stories are told chapter by chapter – kidnappings, murders, mysterious disappearances, serial killers, celebrity crime and more.
REAL CRIME PROFILE: Join Jim Clemente (former FBI profiler), Laura Richards (criminal behavioral analyst, former New Scotland Yard) and Lisa Zambetti (Casting director for CBS' Criminal Minds) as they profile behavior from real criminal cases.
SOMEONE KNOWS SOMETHING: Host David Ridgen joins victims' family members as they investigate cold cases, tracking down leads, speaking to suspects and searching for answers. S1: Adrien McNaughton. S2 Sheryl Sheppard. S3: Dee & Moore. S4: Wayne Greavette. S5: Kerrie Brown.
THE VANISHED: The Vanished is a true crime podcast that explores the stories of those who have gone missing. Join host, Marissa Jones, as she explores each case often interviewing the loved ones who are still searching for answers.
TRUE CRIME ALL THE TIME: Hosts Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson guide you through the most interesting true crime stories. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details and delves into what makes these killers tick. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously.
TRUE CRIME ALL THE TIME UNSOLVED: Each week Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson guide you through the most interesting unsolved true crime stories. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details. We tell the stories of the victims, the facts surrounding the cases, and look at all possible suspects. We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously.
TRUE CRIME GARAGE: Each week Nic & The Captain get in the garage and talk true crime and drink beer.
UNDISCLOSED: The Undisclosed podcast investigates wrongful convictions, and the U.S. criminal justice system, by taking a closer look at the perpetration of a crime, its investigation, the trial, and ultimate verdict… and finding new evidence that never made it to court.
TWISTED PHILLY: The podcast about mischief, mayhem, mystery and the macabre in and around the city of brotherly love.
WHO KILLED THERESA?: Podcast by John Allore. Who Killed Theresa? is a True Crime podcast about unsolved murders in Quebec in the 1970s. The host is the brother of one of the victims, 19-year-old Theresa Allore who went missing in the Eastern Townships in the Fall of 1978.
WINE & CRIME: Wine & Crime is a new true crime / comedy podcast. Join three childhood friends as they chug wine, chat true crime, and unleash their worst Minnesota accents!
WRONGFUL CONVICTION: Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a podcast about tragedy, triumph, unequal justice and actual innocence. Based on the files of the lawyers who freed them, Wrongful Conviction features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit – some of them had even been sentenced to death. These are their stories.
TRUE CRIME OBSESSED: The true crime / comedy podcast YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE. We recap your favorite true crime documentaries with humor, sass, and a well timed garbage bell. Hear our take on "Wild Wild Country,""There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane,""Jesus Camp" and many more. So many garbage people, so little time.
THE FALL LINE: An investigative, narrative, and revealing show focused on the cold cases of marginalized communities in the Southeast. Hosted by a professor and licensed therapist, The Fall Line gives a platform to families and victims who have been passed over by mainstream media.
LAST SEEN: It remains the most valuable — and confounding — art heist in history: 13 artworks stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Twenty-eight years later, not a single piece in a haul worth half a billion dollars has surfaced. The art, and the thieves who made off with it, remain at large. With first-ever interviews, unprecedented access, and more than a year of investigative reporting, "Last Seen" takes us into the biggest unsolved art heist in history. A joint production from WBUR and The Boston Globe.
DR DEATH: We're at our most vulnerable when we go to our doctors. We trust the person at the other end of that scalpel. We trust the hospital. We trust the system.Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon who radiated confidence. He claimed he was the best in Dallas. If you had back pain, and had tried everything else, Dr. Duntsch could give you the spine surgery that would take your pain away.But soon his patients started to experience complications, and the system failed to protect them. Which begs the question: who – or what – is that system meant to protect?From Wondery, the network behind the hit podcast Dirty John, DR. DEATH is a story about a charming surgeon, 33 patients and a spineless system. Reported and hosted by Laura Beil.
BEAR BROOK: Two barrels, four bodies, and an enigmatic killer. The cold case that changed the way murders will be investigated forever.
SERIAL: I listened to this when it was in it's first season and really poppin' but then it lost me and I switched to Undisclosed! Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial unfolds one story – a true story – over the course of a whole season. The show follows the plot and characters wherever they lead, through many surprising twists and turns. Sarah won't know what happens at the end of the story until she gets there, not long before you get there with her. Each week she'll bring you the latest chapter, so it's important to listen in, starting with Episode 1. New episodes are released on Thursday mornings.
IN THE DARK: Reporter Madeleine Baran examines the case of Curtis Flowers, who has been tried six times for the same crime. For 21 years, Flowers has maintained his innocence. He's won appeal after appeal, but every time, the prosecutor just tries the case again. In the Dark is an investigative podcast from APM Reports. Season One focused on the abduction of Jacob Wetterling.
GENERATION WHY: The Generation Why Podcast released its first episode in 2012 and pioneered the true crime genre in the podcasting world. Two friends, Aaron & Justin, break down theories and give their opinions on unsolved murders, controversies, mysteries and conspiracies.
BELIEVED: How did Larry Nassar, an Olympic gymnastics doctor, get away with abusing hundreds of women and girls for two decades? Believed is an inside look at how a team of women won a conviction in one of the largest serial sexual abuse cases in U.S. history. It's a story of survivors finding their power in a cultural moment when people are coming to understand how important that is. It's also an unnerving exploration of how even well-meaning adults can fail to believe.
A KILLING ON THE CAPE: It was a crime that rocked an idyllic seaside town in Cape Cod — the 2002 murder of Christa Worthington, who was found stabbed to death with her 2-year-old daughter, unharmed at her side. What came next was a three-year search for her killer that would involve unorthodox steps by police, a lengthy list of potential suspects, and an entire town under suspicion. Christa's trash collector, Christopher McCowen, would eventually be convicted of the crime, but his trial would raise questions about the evidence, investigative methods, and whether racial prejudice played a role. Now, ABC Radio and "20/20" take a look at all the evidence and for the first time ever, hear directly from Christopher McCowen, to examine whether the right man is behind bars. New episodes post Wednesday mornings.
GLADIATOR: Football star Aaron Hernandez went from the bright lights of the Super Bowl to a convicted murderer in a few years. The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team, best known for its investigation of the sexual abuse scandal inside the Catholic Church, takes a hard look at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez's life and terrible crimes.From Wondery, the podcast team that brought you Dr. Death, Spotlight asks: Did a brain badly damaged by football contribute to Hernandez's violent behavior? Did he keep secrets about his sexuality that collided with a hyper-masculine football culture? Did elite coaches and teams look the other way as Hernandez was spiraling out of control?Spotlight uncovered new documents, audio, and interviews to go deep into the story of what happened to Aaron Hernandez, and what it means for those of us who cheer on a violent game.
ACCUSED: Season 2: A soft-hearted prison minister was found killed in her Kentucky apartment, and Newport police zeroed in on an ex-convict she'd counseled. Thirty years later, the conviction is overturned and the case is once again unsolved. The Cincinnati Enquirer investigates: Was William Virgil wrongly convicted for murder?Season 1: When Elizabeth Andes was found murdered in her Ohio apartment in 1978, police and prosecutors decided within hours it was an open-and-shut case. Two juries disagreed. The Cincinnati Enquirer investigates: Was the right guy charged, or did a killer walk free?
BROKEN HARTS: Markis, Hannah, Devonte, Abigail, Jeremiah, and Sierra Hart—six beautiful black children, ranging in age from 12 to 19—were all adopted by Sarah and Jennifer Hart, both white. On Jen's Facebook page, it looked as if they were the perfect blended family, even earning the nickname "Hart Tribe" from friends. Then, on March 26, 2018, the family's GMC Yukon was found belly-up on the rocks below California's Highway 1. The news of the murder-suicide shocked their friends and made national headlines, leaving many wondering what possibly led to the fatal crash. Could these lives have been saved? Broken Harts, a new podcast from Glamour and HowStuffWorks, investigates this question with more than 30 never-before-heard interviews. Cohosts and Glamour editors Justine Harman and Elisabeth Egan and reporter Lauren Smiley follow the family's journey from South Dakota through Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington, and finally to that 100-foot cliff in California.
CRIME IN SPORTS: Two comedians take an unmerciful and hilarious look at athletes who have lost big games…with the law! Crime in Sports does the research and finds the funny in the world of sports true crime. New episode every week!
CRIMETOWN: Welcome to Crimetown, a series produced by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier in partnership with Gimlet Media. Each season, we investigate the culture of crime in a different city. In Season 2, Crimetown heads to the heart of the Rust Belt: Detroit, Michigan. From its heyday as Motor City to its rebirth as the Brooklyn of the Midwest, Detroit's history reflects a series of issues that strike at the heart of American identity: race, poverty, policing, loss of industry, the war on drugs, and our universal desire for a savior. Detroit's a tough town, and its residents are even tougher. They've weathered riots, a drug epidemic, political scandal, and innumerable other hardships, but they're still here—and they have stories to tell.
TEACHERS PET: Lyn and Chris Dawson appear to have the perfect marriage. He's a star footballer and popular high school teacher. She's a devoted wife and mother. They share a beautiful home above Sydney's northern beaches. But when Lyn goes missing, dark secrets are buried. This is no fairytale, but a sordid story of strangely close twin brothers, teenage student lovers, and probable murder. The Australian's Hedley Thomas digs deep into a cold case which has been unsolved for 36 years, uncovering startling new evidence.


The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission (MFAC) represents recreational and commercial fishing interests from various parts of the Massachusetts coast. Proposed regulatory changes affecting the management of marine fisheries are approved or disapproved by a majority vote of the MFAC.
The MFAC serves the recreational and commercial fishermen across the Commonwealth by working with the Division of Marine Fisheries to ensure sustainable resources for all. The group's nine members are qualified in the field of marine fisheries by training and experience. The Governor appoints Commissioners to terms of up to three years. The MFAC holds monthly meetings.
For more information on the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission, please contact Jared Silva at (617) 626-1534 or jared.silva@state.ma.us.
Raymond W. Kane, Jr. (Chair) of Chatham has four decades of experience in marine operations and fisheries. He is the owner/operator of a commercial lobster and groundfish vessel. Ray is an active member in several fishing organizations, including the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership. Ray is also the outreach spokesman for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance.
Michael Pierdinock (Vice Chair) of Plymouth is a USCG-certified Captain and the owner of the charter boat "Perseverance". Mike serves on the Board of Directors of the Stellwagen Bank Charter Boat Association. He participates in fishery management matters that impact recreational anglers and the for-hire industry.
Arthur Sawyer of Gloucester is a commercial fisherman and current president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association. Sooky has over four decades of commercial fishing experience in both the lobster trap fishery and the groundfish fishery. He is the owner and operator of an active fishing vessel that operates from the port of Gloucester. "Sooky" also serves as an industry representative on the federal Large Whale Take Reduction Team.
Kalil Boghdan of Hamilton earned a PhD. in biology from Northeastern University. He was employed for 31-years as a high school biology and science teacher, a science department chair and a middle school principal in the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District. Additionally, for 20-years he owned and operated a recreational light tackle and fly-fishing charter business, Downriver Charters, under a U.S. Coast Guard and Master's License. He charted the waters of Essex River, Crane Beach, Plum Island Sound and Ipswich Bay. In 2012, Kalil was honored with the Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide of the Year Award. He has served or is currently serving on various conservation, wildlife and community organizations.
Charles Quinn of South Dartmouth owns and manages five scallop vessels and a scallop gear fabrication business. He previously crewed on a scallop vessel and captained his own vessel. He has been involved in the commercial fishing industry for more than 40 years.
Louis Williams of Salem holds an Associate's Degree in Commercial Fisheries and Marine Technologies. He has owned and operated a commercial fishing business for close to 40 years. Lou has previously served as a member of both the New England Groundfish Advisory Committee and the Northeast Seafood Coalition.
Tim Brady of Plymouth is a USGC-certified Captain with over 40-years of experience in the charter and head industry. He is currently the owner and CEO of Capt. Tim Brady and Sons Deep Sea Fishing Inc., and is a long-standing member of the Stellwagen Bank Charter Boat Association. Tim also works as a full-time professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Science.


text:
Q: surface fitting with least square I want to fit a polynomial surface to some 3d points.
First in a loop, matrix R is calculated as follows:
for j=1:size(indices,1)
            A(j,1:3)=Temp.Location(indices(j),:);
            X = Temp.Location(indices(j),1);
            Y = Temp.Location(indices(j),2);
            R(j, 1) = X*X;
            R(j, 2) = Y*Y;
            R(j, 3) = Y;
            R(j, 4) = X;
            R(j, 5) = X*Y;
            R(j, 6) = 1;
            Z(j, 1) = Temp.Location(indices(j),3);
        end

And then  coeficients are calculated as follows:
 Cof=inv(R'*R)*R'*Z;

The results (z and predicted z) are as follows:

enter image description here

Is the method wrong?
How least square is used as surface fitiing?
Thanks
points: [ x ,y ,z ,predicted z]
[]4

A: NOT AN ANSWER.
This isn't an answer to your question, but it's a cleanup of your code, because ... because it was needed.
You wrote:
for j=1:size(indices,1)
        A(j,1:3)=Temp.Location(indices(j),:);
        X = Temp.Location(indices(j),1);
        Y = Temp.Location(indices(j),2);
        R(j, 1) = X*X;
        R(j, 2) = Y*Y;
        R(j, 3) = Y;
        R(j, 4) = X;
        R(j, 5) = X*Y;
        R(j, 6) = 1;
        Z(j, 1) = Temp.Location(indices(j),3);
    end

In doing this, you're re-allocating the matrix $R$ each time through the loop. No big deal for 40 points, but a total mess when there are 100000 points.  So let's just fix that a bit by allocating $R$ in advance:
n = size(indices, 1);
R = zeros(n, 6);

for j=1:n
    ...
end

Now let's get more idomatic: when you want to extract items 1, 2, 3 of an array, you can write
for j = 1:3
  U(j) = X(j)
end

or you can just write
U([1 2 3]) = X([1 2 3])
which is the more "matlab-like" way to do things. Since you're taking each of the items in Temp.Location, in the order specified by indices, you can rewrite most of your code like this:
n = size(indices, 1);
R = zeros(n, 6);

//A(j,1:3)=Temp.Location(indices(j),:); // deleted because never used!
X = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),1); // all the x-values in one columnay list!
Y = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),2);
Z = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),3);
R(:, 1) = X.*X; // term by term squaring
R(:, 2) = Y.*Y;
R(:, 3) = Y;
R(:, 4) = X;
R(:, 5) = X.*Y;
R(:, 6) = 1;

That's looking better, but it's still only partway there. I'm going to make a vector the same length as X containing only the number $1$, and call this vector U, for "unit":
n = size(indices, 1);
R = zeros(n, 6);
X = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),1); // all the x-values in one columnay list!
Y = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),2);
Z = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),3);
U = ones(n, 1);
...

And now I'm going to stick $X, Y,$ and $U$ all into an array $M$, as its columns. I've gotten rid of $A$ because you never used it.
R = zeros(n, 6);
X = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),1); // all the x-values in one columnay list!
Y = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),2);
Z = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),3);
U = ones(n, 1);
M = [X, Y, U];
...

And finally, I'm going to look at M'M. The first entry of this will be the row-vector $X'$ multiplied by the column vector $X$, i.e., it'll be
$$
x_1^2 + x_2 ^2 + \ldots + x_n^2.
$$
Now that might seem odd, because your code just computes $x_1^2$ and puts it into $R(j, 1)$, and similarly for the others. But if you're doing least-squares fitting right, you need this sum, not the individual values. Your code, later, perhaps sums R(j, ...) over all j --- it almost certainly should do so. So now my (conjectured) version of the right code looks like this:
R = zeros(n, 6);
X = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),1); // all the x-values in one columnay list!
Y = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),2);
Z = Temp.Location(indices(1:n),3);
U = ones(n, 1);
M = [X, Y, U];
R = M' * M; // 1,1 entry is X dot X; 1,2 entry is X dot Y; 1, 3 entry
            // is X dot U = sum of all X values, etc.

At this point R is a symmetric matrix containing all the values you need to complete the least-squares process. Of course, I may have mangled your intentions somewhat --- just looking at your code fragment, it's not clear where you're going with the matrix R that you built --- but I've written far more idiomatic and readable matlab code, which will run hugely faster if you ever get around to processing large amounts of data.
Finally, now that we compute R only once, that first line, where we allocate R as an array full of zeroes ... that can be removed!
N.B.:
In your coefficient computation, you're computing inv(R'*R) * R' * Z. That's not going to get you the coefficient you need, because you're squaring a bunch of things that you've already squared. It's also computationally a terrible idea. We seldom solve $Ax = b$ by writing
x = inv(A) * b;

Instead, you get a huge efficiency improvement if you write
x = A \ b;

You might want to read the documentation for the backslash operator; it could substantially simplify your program.
More important though: I want to suggest that you go back and re-read whatever presentation of least-squares fitting you've seen, until you understand it deeply. Then, and only then, start writing code. Randomly searching through the space of all possible programs for the one that does what you want is almost never a good strategy, even if the random search is clustered "near" some correct code: the search space is simply too large to ever result in a correct answer.
If you think you've already done that deep understanding perhaps you can write out here the mathematics that you're trying to emulate with your program.

A: There is a function called fit in matlab which fits a line or surface to given values with a model or regression type. If you simply look. This is an example as I not going to deal with that mess.
load franke
sf = fit([x, y],z,'poly23')

 Linear model Poly23:
     sf(x,y) = p00 + p10*x + p01*y + p20*x^2 + p11*x*y + p02*y^2 + p21*x^2*y
                    + p12*x*y^2 + p03*y^3
     Coefficients (with 95% confidence bounds):
       p00 =       1.118  (0.9149, 1.321)
       p10 =  -0.0002941  (-0.000502, -8.623e-05)
       p01 =       1.533  (0.7032, 2.364)
       p20 =  -1.966e-08  (-7.084e-08, 3.152e-08)
       p11 =   0.0003427  (-0.0001009, 0.0007863)
       p02 =      -6.951  (-8.421, -5.481)
       p21 =   9.563e-08  (6.276e-09, 1.85e-07)
       p12 =  -0.0004401  (-0.0007082, -0.0001721)
       p03 =       4.999  (4.082, 5.917)

plot(sf,[x,y],z)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Summary: Opinion polls in both Japan and the United States show continued strong support for their security alliance and economic relationship, but Trump administration trade policies, its withdrawal from international agreements, and its undermining of multilateral institutions is stressing bilateral ties in ways not seen in decades.
Opinion polls in both Japan and the United States show continued strong support for their security alliance and economic relationship, but Trump administration trade policies, its withdrawal from international agreements, and its undermining of multilateral institutions is stressing bilateral ties in ways not seen in decades. Japan is accustomed to some degree of U.S. political and policy fluctuation, but could we be entering an era of greater alliance tension as partisan battles in Washington intensify?
Japanese historian Koji Murata will put into context Tokyo's evaluation of (and possible adjustment to) political change in the United States. From Carter to Reagan, from Bush to Clinton, and from Obama to Trump, how can the past inform our present and future policy choices as an alliance? Veteran diplomat Rust Deming will join the conversation, moderated by Carnegie's Jim Schoff.
This event is cosponsored by the U.S. Japan Research Institute.
Koji Murata is currently professor of political science at Doshisha University, where he served previously as dean of the Faculty of Law and as president. His latest publication is a biography of Ronald Reagan.
Rust Deming is an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Following a four-decade career in the U.S. Department of State where he served in a variety of posts including deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and principal deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.


Bruce Papas began his fashion career at Auckland's exclusive Ninette Gowns and was later the lead designer. He became a designer for department store Milne & Choyce in 1958 and produced four or five collections a year until 1965. Securing Papas was a coup for Milne & Choyce, and he received full credit for his work. This dress is from his first collection and was advertised in Vogue New Zealand magazine. Papas opened his own store in 1965 and was in business until retiring in 1988.


Among the fat headlines of the week is a report, ready-made by Ashley Barrient, MEd, LPC, RD, LDN, dietician and bariatric supervisor at Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care, and published in the that says that kids are inundated by talk of importance and dieting and feel they cannot natural event the numbers. She goes on to recommend that the family approach healthy eating as a team, which I as well hold with. As someone who was corpulent from early childhood and is unruffled struggling in my mid-50s, I'd like to add some thoughts to this poignant and very agonised problem. Parents rich person to do everything they can to train themselves not only about nutrition but some Binge Eating Disorder and fleshiness in general.
Yes, those words have in reality come in out of my own mouth, in completed and utter seriousness. I advert oral communication them to my quondam high educational institution teacher who saw me working out at the YMCA and asked why I wasn't victimisation more than 90 pounds on the Leg Press machine. To be fair, this was in 2002, a full two period of time earlier I became immersed in the world of strength training. In 2009, actress Peele took a opinion poll of across 2000 women, and in that poll, she asked them a number of questions about weightlifting, women, and what they realize as bulky.
At this term, the young woman becomes stronger and is devising sir thomas more movements in the mother's womb. Although the cleaner can knowingness these movements, it doesn't bring her any discomfort, on the contrary, the feeling of the long-awaited baby privileged is absolute enjoyable. The baby's skin and fat tissues are growing thicker.


I realize you must be an extremely busy person so you can read this when you have some time on your hands. I was twelve years old when I was diagnosed Bipolar. I was on heavy medication schedules and in one mental hospital or another my entire childhood. By the time I was thirty-one years old, I opted not to have children as my doctors explained to me it would be irresponsible for someone as mentally ill as I was to bring children into the world. I was a recluse and eventually became a full blown agoraphobic. So there I was; childless, poor, alone, overweight and completely lost in a world that was sold to me from a very young age.
August 1st, 2010 I drove my car into a utility pole, convinced my purpose on this earth was completely futile. When I was released from the hospital I sat down on my couch and started opening mail that had piled up during my stay. I opened letter after letter which were notices that my medications were no longer covered by my insurance. I was taking eight different medications at that time. I started crying and went into the bathroom to rinse my face off. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and stood there, just staring at my reflection. I had a bandage on my forehead, mascara streaming down my face and bandages on my arms. It suddenly dawned on me that I didn't want to be 'me' anymore. I felt like a manufactured American, composed of prescriptions and labels. That was the day everything changed for me. I threw my cigarettes in the garbage and started a blog, "Daughter of the American Drug Companies" which detailed my long battle with prescription medication and what it was like to divorce them. Steve Miccio of People, Inc. was one of my readers for two years. He wrote to me one day and I wrote back. We shared over a thousand messages and among those messages I learned the word 'wellness' and fell in love for the first time in my life. I left my native Flint, Michigan, a crime infested city I called home for over a decade and moved to New York to live with Steve and continue my recovery. Mary Ellen, you were on my Facebook page the entire time, years before I ever met Steve. He gave me your WRAP book the day I moved in. As far as my WRAP plan ~ I think the most important thing I do is keep a consistent schedule. My diet is also a huge part of my wellness ~ I don't eat sugar, caffeine, drink alcohol, or smoke. I also exercise at least four days a week. Keeping my brain busy is vital so I work on puzzles, paint by numbers and read quite a lot. I've lost sixty pounds and continue to lose weight as my recovery progresses. I'm now in DBT Therapy, Talk Therapy and on a fitness plan. I've been off Bipolar medications for two years and have discovered through therapy that underlying PTSD was the culprit all along.
I wanted you to know that without people with your vision, people like me would be destined to wander the halls of the great drug companies for the duration of their lives. People would be stuck in a world without words like 'wellness' and 'recovery' and I can tell you from experience, that world is so utterly dark and hopeless. Thank you Mary Ellen ~ from the bottom of my heart and soul. I took my blog down and am turning it into a book, which is also part of my wellness plan. You will be named among the people I thank for making recovery possible for me.


If you are currently in the process of trying to locate the perfect limo bus in Chelsea, then you will be able to stop your searching as of right now by simply giving us a call. By doing so, you will be putting yourself in safe hands no matter what it is that you will be celebrating in our amazing limo bus.
Once you make that initial contact, we will ascertain exactly what it is that you are searching for so we are then able to provide you with the kind of experience that you want. We know that whenever you have something to celebrate that you need everything to go as planned, and we are in the position to ensure that this will always be the case.
When you first see our limo bus, you are going to realize that you made the correct decision from the outset. Not only is our approach entirely professional, but that will be clear from the very moment that you set eyes on it.
Our limo bus has been designed in such a way so as it can maximise the space and allow you to invite as many guests as possible. Let's face it, you will want to have your friends and family sharing in whatever it is that you are celebrating. However, don't worry that things are going to be too cramped as that is certainly not our style.
When everyone gets on board, one of the first things that you are going to notice is that we have included luxurious seats to make sure that your time on board is as comfortable as possible. On top of that, we have our amazing sound system that is designed to provide you and your guests with a stunning atmosphere as that is always the key to any kind of celebration.
Of course, you cannot forget that you have a fully professional driver at hand as well who will be there to deal with any problems or issues that you might have during your time with us. Clearly, we hope that there will be nothing of any concern to you, but rest assured that we can deal with any problems that may indeed arise.
So, if you are living in the Chelsea area and are looking for that special location for your celebration, then consider hiring our limo bus for something that is just that little bit different. All you need to do is to give us a call or email us and a member of our team will get back to you. When we do, we are going to spend some time finding out about your needs and making sure that we are able to not only meet them but surpass them as well.


Acre is part of the U.S. customary and imperial measurement systems, which refers to a unit of area. Two commonly used acres nowadays are the survey acre and the international acre. In addition, there are other types of acres such as the Roman acre, Irish acre as well as Scottish acre. People can easily measure huge spaces as well as understand the other important aspects of this unit of measurement by learning the different dimensions of an acre.
An acre is equivalent to 43,560 square feet or 4,840 square yards. It has no specific shape, length or width. In the metric system, its equivalent is 40 percent of a hectare. A survey acre is equivalent to 4,046.8726098 square meters. On the other hand, the equivalent of an international acre is 4,046.8564224 square meters.
The equivalent of a survey acre in metric units is 0.404687261 hectare. On the other hand, an international acre is equivalent to 0.40468564224 hectare. An acre is equivalent to 0.0015625 square mile. It is also equivalent to 10 square chains. At the same time, this particular unit of measurement has a value of 160 perches. An acre is also equivalent to 208.71 feet by 208.71 feet. In addition, it is also has the same value as 43,560 square feet.
Today, the equivalent of a single acre is 90.75 yards of an American football field that has a width of 53.33 yards. If you are to measure the entire field, which includes the end zones, the area covered is measured about 1.32 acres. Among them were Henry VIII, Edward III and George IV. In 1878, Queen Victoria signed the Weights and Measures Act of Great Britain, which defined the equivalent of an acre as 4,840 square yards. Throughout the history of the country, this unit of measurement has been used to measure land estates as well as farm sizes. In addition, the equivalent of a Roman acre is 1,260 square meters.
Last updated October 5, 2009 .


text:
Uptown tower in Dubai becomes the world's first supertall tower to adopt robotics for lift installation
Dubai, UAE - For the construction of Uptown Tower in Dubai, BESIX Group subsidiary Six Construct, Schindler and DMCC, the world's largest Free Zone in the heart of Dubai, have chosen to deploy Schindler R.I.S.E, the world's first robot able to perform installation work in an elevator shaft.
The 340m tall tower is the first building be completed in the Uptown Dubai district, with an expected delivery in 2022. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture and built by BESIX Group, the tower will feature 188 luxury hotel rooms and suites, restaurants, health spas, conference facilities, and 229 uniquely designed branded residences. Guided by a smart and sustainable construction strategy, Uptown Tower will be a LEED Gold Certified Building, and home to a state-of-the-art DMCC Business Hub.
Known for adopting innovative solutions, BESIX is using the autonomous and self-climbing robot pioneered by Schindler, Schindler's Robotic Installation System for Elevators (Schindler R.I.S.E), for the first time on a supertall tower. Ideally suited for use in high-rise buildings, Schindler R.I.S.E will travel to all the levels of the tower to accurately measure and drill precision holes to set the anchor bolts necessary for the installation of the elevator guide rails and landing doors.
What were only trends yesterday have accelerated to become the norm.
"If the Covid-19 pandemic is not the only driver of the improvement in productivity on construction, it will certainly be its accelerator, in particular through the digitalisation of processes," said Luis Miguel Monteiro, Project Director at Six Construct of the Dubai Uptown Tower.
This cutting-edge technology is revolutionising the elevator installation by making construction faster and more accurate, while also improving the health and safety conditions for technicians. Robotic systems are becoming increasingly important to automate many of the construction industry's repetitive and physically demanding tasks. Customer also benefit from increased accuracy, better quality installations and greater work safety & health conditions on the jobsite.
Paul Ashton, Executive Director – Property, DMCC, said: "Using innovative solutions to build Uptown Tower in a sustainable and safe manner aligns perfectly with DMCC's core ethos. The Schindler R.I.S.E solution will not only provide a safer workplace for those working on the project but will also result in a higher-quality product."
As a technology leader in innovative urban solutions for smart cities, Schindler R.I.S.E couples artificial intelligence with elevator technology to enable the safe and precise installation of elevators, paving the way for greater automation and digitalisation in the elevator industry. Digitalisation extends the capabilities of Schindler R.I.S.E by also enabling it to record actions and automatically exchange data with a digital model of the building.
The pioneering innovation was nominated as a finalist for the Innovation Award 2019 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats (CTBUH). It was also nominated finalist in the category Innovation Leaders of this year's Swiss Technology Award, the most important distinction for innovation and technology transfer in Switzerland.
This is another example of Schindler's commitment to providing smart urban mobility solutions to shape smart cities of the future.
About Schindler:
Founded in Switzerland in 1874, the Schindler Group is a leading global provider of elevators, escalators and related services. Schindler mobility solutions move more than 1.5 billion people every day all over the world. Behind the company's success are over 65,000 employees in more than 100 countries.
About DMCC:
Headquartered in Dubai, DMCC is the world's most interconnected Free Zone, and the leading trade and enterprise hub for commodities. Whether developing vibrant neighbourhoods with world-class property like Jumeirah Lakes Towers and the much-anticipated Uptown Dubai, or delivering high performance business services, DMCC provides everything its dynamic community needs to live, work and thrive. Made for Trade, DMCC is proud to sustain and grow Dubai's position as the place to be for global trade today and long into the future. www.dmcc.ae
About Six Construct:
Operating in the United Arab Emirates since 1966, Six Construct is a subsidiary of BESIX Group, the largest Belgian construction company, and has been a driving force in the development of the Arabian Peninsula.
Six Construct designs and builds the most complex projects, comprising buildings and skyscrapers, marine-related projects, infrastructures, waste and water treatment installations, sports and leisure facilities.
The company stands out by having an in-house Engineering department, with state-of-the-art expertise in diverse fields enabling it to carry out unique projects, particularly in terms of technical and environmental aspects.
In the United Arab Emirates, Six Construct has notably participated to the construction of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, the Dubai Tram, the Emirates Palace, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Dubai Water Canal, the Ferrari World theme park as well as major terminals and port facilities. www.sixconstruct.com


text:
Renaud Lancelot
aod (1.3.1). Analysis of Overdispersed Data. (12 months ago)
aods3 (0.4-1.1). Analysis of Overdispersed Data using S3 Methods. (over 1 year ago)
aod was upgraded to version 1.3.1 (12 months ago)
aods3 was upgraded to version 0.4-1.1 (over 1 year ago)
aods3 was upgraded to version 0.4-1 (over 6 years ago)
aods3 was upgraded to version 0.4.0 (over 6 years ago)
aods3 was upgraded to version 0.3-11 (over 6 years ago)
aods3 was released (over 6 years ago)
aod was upgraded to version 1.3 (almost 8 years ago)
aod was upgraded to version 1.2 (over 9 years ago)
aod was upgraded to version 1.1-33 (over 9 years ago)
crantastic_production tagged aod with Econometrics (over 10 years ago)


text:
Renewing the Sacred Balance »
Mouvement Laudato Si' Movement Canada »
MLSM Canada Latest News »GCCM Canada Listening to Youth Webinar
GCCM Canada Listening to Youth Webinar
by Agnes Richard
Intergenerational solidarity is not optional, but rather a basic question of justice, since the world we have received also belongs to those who will follow us." Pope Francis, 159 Laudato Si'
Learn how Canadian Catholics can act in support and solidarity with Indigenous and Youth environmental leaders.
Purpose: To introduce three dynamic young Canadian women who are defending land, water, culture, and our future. Hanna Edenshaw of the Haida Gwaii Nation, Sadie-Phoenix Lavoie an Anishinaabe Two-Spirit from Sagkeeng First Nation and Rebecca Rathbone will share their experiences, the projects they are currently working on and how we can support them. We will also be discussing the disproportionate impact that climate change and unsustainable resource extraction have on Indigenous Communities in Canada and elsewhere.
Watch and listen to webinar (1 hour, 04 minutes)
Keynotes:
Haana Edenshaw is a high school student from Masset, Haida Gwaii, on BC's north coast. She is an environmental activist who has been on protest lines to protect the lands of Haida Gwaii since before she could walk, and is founder of Damaan Tlagee, (protect the land) a community youth environmental organization. Haana has also helped her school get a machine that turns plastic to fuel to demonstrate how ocean plastics can be cleaned up and reused. Haana has been a youth representative for Haida Gwaii Communities Against Supertankers (CoASt) and Swiilawiid Sustainability Society's initiative to see the Islands become energy sovereign. She has spoken at the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues and is currently suing the federal Canadian Government for a court-ordered climate plan.
Sadie-Phoenix Lavoie is an Anishinaabe Two-Spirit from Sagkeeng First Nation located on Treaty 1 territory. Sadie-Phoenix are currently the Community Coordinator at Wa Ni Ska Tan: An Alliance of Hydro-Impacted Communities, and Co-Founder of Red Rising Magazine. Sadie-Phoenix worked on numerous student led initiatives at the University of Winnipeg, including the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign, as well attended the UN COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco on behalf of the Canadian Climate Youth Coalition. They were also one of the 100 youth arrested on Parliament Hill protesting the Kinder Morgan Pipeline, and have been on the front lines at Standing Rock, North Dakota. Sadie-Phoenix Lavoie received the Dr. Tobasonakwut Kinew Leadership Award at the University of Winnipeg and the Next Generation Peacemaker Award from the Peace and Social Justice Studies Association of Canada.
Rebecca Rathbone is the Southwestern Ontario Animator for Development & Peace – Caritas Canada, which is the official Humanitarian Aid and International Development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada. In this role she supports the work of volunteer members who carry out Development & Peace's Education, Advocacy, and Fundraising campaigns in the dioceses of Hamilton, London, and St. Catharines. She also represents Canada on the global working group of the Global Catholic Climate Movement's youth wing, Laudato Si Generation, and helped this group to present the Climate Manifesto to Cardinal Tagle at World Youth Day 2019 in Panama. In 2019 she worked for Caritas Internationalis for six months, to help to build and coordinate a global youth program for the Caritas confederation and its 160+ member organizations around the world. She holds a Masters of Global Affairs degree from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
GCCM Canada Background:
As Pope Francis teaches in Laudato Si', unprecedented ecological devaluing, pollution, and waste is endangering the flourishing of future generations. Moreover, the cost is being born disproportionately by vulnerable communities around the world. Catholics have been called upon by our last three popes and the Canadian bishops to respond to these social and ecological, moral and spiritual crises. We need to care for our common home in order to heal our relationships with our human family, the rest of creation, and God.
The GCCM is a global coalition of 900+ Catholic member organizations, with nearly 100 trained Laudato Si' Animators in Canada, dedicated to turning Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato Si' into action for climate justice. GCCM Canada is hosted by Canadian, interfaith, environmental charity Faith & the Common Good.
GCCMCanada gccm_blog


text:
Microsoft reverses course (again): Kinect-free $400 Xbox One coming in June
By Hayden Dingman
Games Reporter, TechHive |
Mike Homnick
E3's not even for another month and already the biggest announcement might have been made: Microsoft is releasing an Xbox One console without the pack-in Kinect albatross around its neck.
"Beginning on June 9th, in all markets where Xbox One is sold, we will offer Xbox One starting at $399," wrote Xbox head Phil Spencer in a blog post on Xbox.com. "This is a new console option that does not include Kinect."
Cue explosions. Cue cheers. Cue Microsoft finally completing the massive, unprecedented 180-degree turn on policy it started after last year's E3 disaster.
Xbox One members will also start receiving Games with Gold in June—Microsoft's two-free-games-per-month service that has heretofore been an Xbox 360 exclusive. In June, Xbox One users will be able to download Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Halo: Spartan Assault for free.
And, as tipped yesterday, Microsoft confirmed that all streaming media applications will be lifted from behind the Xbox Live Gold paywall. That's right—you can now use Hulu Plus, Netflix, HBO Go, and the like through your Xbox without having to pay Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold toll. Internet Explorer and Skype will also be free to use. This constitutes an entire rethinking of what Xbox Live Gold means nowadays, and brings the service in line with what Sony offers.
Microsoft plans to release a standalone version of the Xbox One Kinect this fall.
Suddenly this console generation is a lot more interesting. It's simultaneously shocking and not-at-all-surprising to see Microsoft backpedal on the Kinect. After months of lagging behind the PlayStation 4 in sales, the Xbox One needed a Hail Mary to make it a competitive platform. Sony's PlayStation 4 has been dealing out lumps to the Xbox since E3 last year, and the Kinect tacking $100 onto the Xbox's price point (plus all the fears about privacy and the stigma against the Kinect) have made Microsoft's console a tougher sell than Sony's.
But Microsoft has slowly-but-surely changed every single thing people hate about the Xbox One in response to consumer feedback.
Even still, I'm a little surprised to see an Xbox One without Kinect. Last year Microsoft stood up on stage at E3 and presented a vision. It was a vision nobody really wanted, and a vision a lot of people thought was absolutely crazy, but it was still a concrete, solid vision. Research went into this. Time went into this. Money went into this. Microsoft knew exactly what it wanted to do with the Xbox One.
And now none of that exists. No online-only. No digital rentals. And with no Kinect, that means Microsoft now considers everything from "Xbox On" verbal commands to all those next-gen Kinect experiences to be purely optional.
What a difference a year makes. I'm sure we'll hear more about this at E3 next month—the fact Microsoft didn't save these announcements until its press conference in June is already shocking.
This story, "Microsoft reverses course (again): Kinect-free $400 Xbox One coming in June" was originally published by TechHive.
Hayden writes about games for PCWorld and doubles as the resident Zork enthusiast.