Experts say that the average worker changes their career around seven times during their working lives. So, if you're unhappy or unfulfilled in your current work, there's nothing wrong with seeking a new challenge.
Here are seven top tips to ensure that the process brings only the very best outcomes.
If you've become disillusioned with your current career, it's vital that your next one offers financial and emotional rewards. There are literally hundreds of jobs out there, and this list of satisfying ones should provide a great starting point. In today's climate, it's important to focus on careers with longevity too. However, if you're going to start lower down the ladder, you must appreciate your time in life and similar key factors.
Your current career might provide a number of transferable skills. Nonetheless, you cannot expect to walk into a new working environment without a little development. Investing in your education through courses in mining and other specific careers will prepare you for a brighter future. Moreover, these steps can be completed while you're still working your current job, meaning you shouldn't lose out financially.
Finding a suitable job within your newly desired field isn't always easy. There are many aspects to consider from location to salary, as well as working hours and external matters. Either way, though, the internet is your greatest tool. Some companies only post their jobs through internal platforms while others use job boards and other outlets. You can't grab an opportunity if you don't know it exists. So getting this one right is key.
Once you've found the ideal position, you must do your research before rushing in. Understanding the exact requirements is crucial. You can also find out about the company and key personnel through a little snooping around. Go one step further by using LinkedIn and networks to your advantage, and your confidence should shoot through the roof.
Knowing what the employer wants is one thing, but proving that you have it is another altogether. Before completing your applications, it's imperative that you build a resume that will stand out from the crowd. Competition for places is fierce, especially when people have bots ready to automatically apply for jobs. Therefore, making that big first impression is key.
Landing an interview shows that the employer considers you to be a serious candidate. However, it'll count for very little if you don't follow it up in the right manner. Dressing in the appropriate manner is vital while you should also showcase great organization. Be prepared for both individual and group elements, and load yourself with the right questions to leave an even stronger mark. It still won't guarantee that you land the job, but it should give your hopes a serious boost.
Once you do land the new career role, you must hit the ground running. In truth, it'll become a lot easier when you build positive relationships with colleagues and bosses. As such, this should be the first item on your agenda. Meanwhile, putting in the extra effort early on will get you noticed quickly, which could pay dividends with fast-tracked progress. Above all else, that positive engagement should work wonders for your own self-esteem.


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Nolan Hickman and His Mean-Mugging Death Stare Eliminate Santa Clara, 81-76
Buckle in, West Coast Conference play is going to be a roller-coaster ride.
By Arden Cravalho Jan 7, 2023, 9:40pm PST
Share All sharing options for: Nolan Hickman and His Mean-Mugging Death Stare Eliminate Santa Clara, 81-76
Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Here we go, another nail-biter. A battle of heavyweights in the WCC this season ended in one more tough finish in the Bay Area. The Gonzaga faithful had a difficult time showing life early in a packed Leavey Center full of students back from Christmas break but the Zags still came out of the road-trip with two solid victories.
I'm really getting stressed out about how close these West Coast Conference games have started out. "Grab your nitroglycerin pills" as the great Jon Rothstein would say cause this league is no joke. It's going to be a battle for the majority of the games in January and February (plus a little bit of early March).
Nolan Hickman is evolving right in front of our eyes. And Gonzaga's will continues to resonate. Two wins by a combined seven points in three days to sweep the Bay Area.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) January 8, 2023
Nolan Hickman had the hottest hand of the night and couldn't seem to miss from deep (a career-high of 20 points on 8-9 FG, 4-5 3PT). He was locked in, kept dead-eye mugging his own bench after each make from way out there. I don't know where the Zags would be without him tonight. Remember how certain fans were judging Hickman in November and December?
Nolan nice wit it pic.twitter.com/JPtJyvkbYQ
— Gonzaga Basketball (@ZagMBB) January 8, 2023
As for "The 'Stache", Drew Timme is officially offensively back after a one-game hiatus. The NPOY candidate finished with 20 points on 7-15 FG, 6-10 FT to go along with his 6 rebounds and 4 assists. You could tell his swagger was back, he felt much more comfortable on the low block. Feeding off the opposing crowd's energy, doing his little fluttering along with his many other mini-celebrations.
Onto Santa Clara, the Broncos have a star in their own right. Brandin Podziemski (17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists) literally does what he wants, when he wants. I am not overexaggerating when saying he has been one of the best players in college basketball this season. The WCC POY is not a lock for Drew Timme this season. It's a two-man race and neck-and-neck at this early point of league play.
Herb Sendek has his strongest, deepest team since taking over the head coaching job in Santa Clara. The Broncos played 40 minutes of strong basketball. Didn't let up once. Looks to be a very dangerous opponent in Las Vegas for the WCC Tournament, wouldn't want the Zags to run into this group for a third time.
So, why was this game so close? Gonzaga's defense. It looks like it's going to be a real liability in March. Opponents are really exposing that missing part in their armor. Doesn't even look like a KenPom Top 100 ranking. Major adjustments are needed to be made on that end by Mark Few in the upcoming days of practice.
One player who once again did stand out on that side of the floor was little Ben Gregg. He did a lot of dirty work tonight and was helpful with Anton Watson's early foul trouble. A team-high 8 boards at the half, fighting for loose balls, diving on the floor. His energetic mentality off the bench is really going to be important down the road.
AND 1 @ZagMBB | #WCChoops pic.twitter.com/AwQz5njJ5o
— WCC Basketball (@WCChoops) January 8, 2023
I can't leave out Julian Strawther (18 points on 6-10 FG and 2-3 3PT, 6 assists, 4 rebounds). When the future NBA first-round pick scores 15+ points, it seems that only great results occur for the Zags. He's really been a reliable source of offense throughout the first half of the season except a couple of times in the non-conference (I'm mostly hinting at Purdue). Gonzaga will need every tiny bit out of him if the Zags want to run the hot table that is the West Coast Conference.
It's all said and done from the San Francisco/Santa Clara trek and #9 Gonzaga is 14-3 overall, 3-0 in league play. Only relax for a little bit because it doesn't get any easier as the Zags head to the always insanely loud Marriott Center, the home of the BYU Cougars. You can catch the action on Thursday on ESPN at 6:30 PM PT.
Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area... Follow him on Twitter @a_cravalho
Gonzaga slides down to No. 16 And now the second-highest ranked team in the WCC.
10 Observations from Gonzaga's loss to Saint Mary's 19-5
Gonzaga drops to No. 23 in latest AP Poll Still a top 25 team.
Aidan Mahaney and Saint Mary's Late-Game Offensive Flurry Pushes the Gaels Past the Zags, 78-70 Aidan Mahaney is that dude. Saint Mary's is more than for real.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


y ahora soy feliz cuando te beso.
si la vida es dar, te entrego todo.
sólo por amor se entrega el alma.
This entry was posted on Miércoles, noviembre 20th, 2013 at 12:11	and is filed under Tuna, Y. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


Trail Break's Southern Trail Rides are an overwhelmingly popular series and this weekend heads to a new destination on 5 July, with Reigate in Surrey hosting the latest round.
Trail Break has been working hard with Redhill CC to put together a thrilling course that packs in many of the riding hotspots of the North Downs, including the Stane Street roller coaster, classic Box Hill climb, more swoopy trails and cheeky climbs than you can imagine before one final descent down Reigate Hill.
As ever, there's a choice of distances so you can pick as much or little of a challenge as you want, from 12 to 35 miles. The Southern Trail Rides are designed to make great riding simple. They work out the best routes, mark them out for you to follow and even provide a marked up map – all you need to do is turn up and ride.
Included in the entry price is full route marking, a colour A4 route map, free SIS energy drink, ride timing, full web results, emergency support and on-site catering. You can enter online or on the day (subject to availability). Enter now.
The event base is at Reigate College on the eastern edge of the town. From the A217 (which connects the M25 and A25), turn into Rushworth Road and look for the College on your right. More directions.


If your order is not in stock at the time of purchase , your credit card or Paypal account will not be charged. Buy the Washburn R314KK Revival Parlor Acoustic Guitar online in Hong Kong at the best price of HKD $5,295. Serviced cities in Hong Kong (香港) include Kowloon , Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long.
Classic Washburn look and tone with no need for a time machine.
Washburn's Revival Series, which includes this R314KK Parlor Acoustic Guitar, draws inspiration from the great Washburn instruments crafted in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. The "vibe" of a 100-year-old instrument that has been well-played, but not abused, is created on the R314KK through a vintage finish and distressed hardware. Other appointments of the R314KK include an 1866 "Style 306" vintage "V" shaped neck, Washburn 1889, Style 306 inlay and trim, slotted peghead, and a cool, vintage-inspired ebony bridge. Because these guitars are built using modern techniques and materials, the resulting instruments are more durable, and in many cases, better sounding than their century-old counterparts.


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Are There Enough ACO $hared $avings to $hare?
The eighth advisory in our series on the newly proposed ACO regulations implementing Section 3022 of the PPACA
By Kent B. Thurber and Edwin D. Rauzi
As summarized in our previous advisories, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act anticipates the creation of accountable care organizations comprised of physicians, hospitals, and other health care suppliers.
ACOs must be willing to enter into a three-year Shared Savings Program agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and be accountable for the care of at least 5,000 Medicare beneficiaries. If quality performance standards are met, the ACO is eligible to receive shared savings bonus payments in addition to fee-for-service payments. The details are contained in the proposed ACO rule published by CMS on April 7, 2011.
This eighth advisory in our series on ACOs focuses on how the shared savings will be calculated. This article does not address shared risks, which will be examined in a future advisory. CMS refers to the shared savings methodology as the "one-sided model," and the combination of shared savings and shared risks as the "two-sided model."
CMS' proposed methodology for calculating shared savings is neither simple nor particularly precise, making it challenging for providers to estimate their potential bonus payments before deciding whether to form an ACO.
Essentially, CMS proposes to share with the ACO a portion of the savings that are calculated by comparing the ACO's future Medicare payments against a "benchmark" of what CMS would have paid for services to the same patient population absent the ACO's efforts to achieve cost savings. To an unusual degree, CMS discusses the various options it considered and adopted or rejected, and invites public comment on all aspects of its methodology.
As a preliminary matter, no ACO will be eligible for any shared savings payments if it fails to meet CMS' minimum quality standards. Please refer to our April 18, 2011 advisory, "Proposed Quality Measures for ACOs," for an explanation of the standards.
Establishing an expenditure benchmark
The Medicare expenditure benchmark is designed to estimate the amounts CMS would otherwise have spent for Medicare Parts A and B for the population served by the ACO. If successful, the cost savings estimates that are based on this benchmark will reward an ACO that successfully coordinates patient care and achieves real savings.
The option that CMS selected to measure the initial benchmark analyzes Parts A and B fee-for-service payments on behalf of patients that would have been assigned to the ACO in the three years prior to the contract period (had ACOs existed).
Starting with the tax identification numbers of ACO provider participants, CMS will use their claim records to identify patients who received a plurality of their primary care services from physicians in the ACO in each of the three prior years. The per capita expenditures for the group of assumed ACO members will then be adjusted for demographic factors and health status, as well as inflation.
The option CMS considered but rejected would have based the benchmark on patients who were actually assigned (as opposed to "would have been assigned") to the ACO, and analyzing the Parts A and B expenditures for those patients during the prior three years.
Adjusting the benchmark for the beneficiary characteristics
CMS also proposes additional adjustments intended to provide greater certainty that shared savings are actually the result of greater quality and efficiency in delivering health services. Specifically, CMS wishes to minimize the possibility that expenditures could go down based on random factors and to anticipate that ACO providers will provide diagnosis codes with more detail in the ACO context. In other words, the coding for the benchmark population might be apples, and the coding for the "real" ACO participants might be oranges.
To guard against these risks, CMS proposes to import a prospective risk adjustment model that has already been implemented in the Medicare Advantage program. The model is called the CMS Hierarchical Condition Category (CMS-HCC). The CMS-HCC is designed to use historical diagnoses to develop risk scores, which are then applied to their current year expenditures. CMS asserts that the model has been accepted by the Medicare Advantage HMOs.
CMS will calculate a single benchmark risk score for each ACO, based on the assigned ACO beneficiaries. That risk score will apply throughout the three-year contracting period. The benchmark risk scores for each of the three years prior to the contracting period will be calculated by applying the CMS-HCC model to the assigned beneficiaries, but changes in the risk scores between the benchmark period and the contract period will be ignored. According to CMS, this methodology will minimize the effects of "greater diagnosis coding intensity" that may occur going forward.
Trending the benchmark
CMS also had to decide how to account for inflation while calculating the expenditure trend in the benchmark period in order to project it into the future and compare it to the performance period. CMS proposes to use actual beneficiary expenditures (as opposed to national per capita expenditures), but to adjust them for inflation using growth factors based on national expenditures.
CMS reasons that the former will be the most neutral and comparable method across different geographic regions, while the latter will assist ACOs in both high- and low-spending markets and growth markets while moving the industry toward the establishment of national standards.
Minimum savings and sharing rates
CMS proposes to share savings with ACOs only when they achieve a minimum savings rate (MSR). To establish MSRs for different sized ACOs, CMS purports to rely on standard inferential statistical analysis to assign a sliding scale of statistical confidence intervals (CIs) which will be individually tailored to each ACO depending on its number of beneficiaries.
Because statistical confidence is lower with smaller numbers of beneficiaries, the smaller ACOs will have higher MSRs. For example, an ACO with 5,000 beneficiaries will have an MSR of 3.9 percent, while an ACO with 10,000 will have an MSR of 3 percent and an ACO with 50,000 will have an MSR of 2.2 percent.
With some exceptions, once an ACO has achieved its MSR, it will be entitled to receive 50 percent of the total savings in Medicare expenditures beyond the first 2 percent of savings, up to a limit of 7.5 percent of the benchmark. Exceptions to this 2 percent threshold are made for certain ACOs in smaller rural areas such as those served by critical access hospitals and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs).
Special bonuses for ACOs that Include FQHCs and/or RHCs
ACOs that incorporate the services of FQHCs and rural health centers (RHCs) will be given more generous shared savings, at least in the one-sided model. Once again, CMS proposes to pay such bonuses on a sliding scale that measures the numbers of ACO beneficiaries that use FQHC or RHC services.
Such ACOs can receive an increase in shared savings rate of up to 2.5 percent during the first two years of the performance period. The higher the numbers of such beneficiaries, the higher will be the potential additional bonus. To receive the maximum increase, an ACO would need at least 41 percent of its beneficiaries to have at least one encounter with an FQHC or RHC.
Shared savings, or shared risk?
As indicated above, CMS plans a quick transition of ACOs from sharing savings only to sharing both savings and risks. Shared risks mean that, if the ACO does save the program money, then the ACO will have to refund to CMS a portion of the payments it received.
The one-sided model is only available in the first two years of an ACO's participation, and ACOs can elect the two-sided model from the beginning. After the initial two-year period, all ACOs will be subject to the two-sided model. Because every ACO is being asked to commit to three years of participation, that means every ACO must carefully consider the possibility that it may wind up paying CMS at the end of the third year, as opposed to receiving a bonus.
As noted above, the two-sided model will be the subject of another advisory in this series about the ACO proposed rule.
Under the right circumstances, an ACO could receive significant bonus payments in addition to Medicare's fee-for-service payments. ACOs that elect to participate in this initiative under the rules CMS proposes, however, will initially have limited clinical and financial data. How well an ACO gathers, analyzes, and reacts to the data will determine how soon the goals of achieving greater efficiencies and coordination of care are realized.
Only time (and perhaps the comments to the proposed rule) will tell whether CMS has chosen the right path.
In our ongoing series on the newly proposed ACO regulations, we will be issuing additional separate advisories focusing on specific topics raised by the regulations and the affiliated guidance and requests for comments including:
State law restrictions
When things go wrong or circumstances change
Please also see our past installments in this series:
"The New ACO Regs: They're Here (Well, Sort of ... )" (04. 05.11)
"Antitrust Enforcement Agencies Issue Proposed Guidance on ACOs" (04.06.11)
"What the Proposed ACO Regulations Say About Legal Structures and Governance" (04.11.11)
"ACOs: The Fraud & Abuse Waivers – Finding a Path Through the Maze" (04.15.11)
"Proposed Quality Measures for ACOs " (04.18.11)
"If You Build It, Who Will Come?" (05.02.11)
"How IRS Guidance Addresses ACO Participation for Exempt Hospitals and Other Health Care Organizations" (05.09.11)
Stay tuned … and in the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact us.


A site saturated with a stunning green cover was the blank canvas on which Palinda Kannangara applied the broad strokes of his design palette. The award-winning architect's rigorous spatial configurations are tempered by an inspired play of material combinations. Here, he chose to breathe new life into an existing structure. The former space that ignored location and context, was transformed into a light-filled space, which introduced nature in its midst, keeping ornamentation to a minimum.
Architectural Digest: Did the client have a specific brief?
Palinda Kannangara: The client wanted a second home that would be a tranquil space for him to pursue his writings on Buddhist philosophy. His wife loves gardening and their daughter, a classical dancer, wanted a space to practise. The design also provides connections to the vast paddy landscapes on one side and into small secret courtyard gardens and ponds.
AD: Did the site influence the design?
PK: This is a renovation project of a 1970s house, which was located close to paddy fields, but had no connection with them. I retained the old structure, but opened up the house to the paddies. I created an upper entrance court and a higher garden. Although the level of the paddy is almost eight feet lower, the idea was to create panoramic views from all the rooms.
AD:How did the material selection happen?
is what I do for all my projects. Rubble stone, local river rock, crushed gravel and recycled granite pavers (from demolished sites) were used for outdoor and courtyard paving. The indoor flooring comprises polished cut cement for the ground floor and local 'kabuk' timber for the upper level. A structural concrete wall has been used to give the living room a different texture.
AD: Did the location dictate the interiors?
PK: The location helped me design the interiors to reflect the exterior palette. The quietness and the temporal qualities of the shadows of the surrounding landscape have been brought inside. The living spaces are created as 'verandah living', taking the user closer to nature.
AD: What is your design philosophy for homes?
PK: Homes should offer an effortless connection between family members, while also offering them privacy. Different spaces should offer different experiences; new sensory experiences should be created through the play of light and ventilation.


You knew that cannabis and CBD would have to migrate to the bedroom right? Foria is the leader in the intimate products space, creating a line of topical oils that "enhance tactile sensation and pleasure while decreasing tension, discomfort and dryness." They have some pretty astounding reviews. Worth a try right?
If you are in a legal state, you could also try their version with THC, Foria Pleasure..
…or their new CBD vape pen.
Use code SELFCARE15 to get 15% off.


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Powell River Blueway continues to expand
Tuesday, January 21, 2020 7:25 pm
What is a Blueway? It is a water path or trail that is developed with launch points, camping locations, parking and points of interest for ... Read more | Add your comment
Area Happenings
CCSO seizes drugs, firearms during search
By Jan Runions
Published 8:53 am Friday, December 6, 2019
The Claiborne County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) spent a busy week rounding up all manner of narcotics and other illegal items during what was initially the routine serving of arrest warrants.
A myriad of illegal items were confiscated at a Whitaker Road residence in Tazewell on Dec. 5, where arrest warrants were served on Jonathan David Goins.
The CCSO officers eventually found Goins hiding in the attic of the residence.
In the meantime, the deputies and detectives were given permission by the resident, Lance R Carter, to search the home.
The officers uncovered approximately five pounds of marijuana, 15 grams of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, four handguns, a shotgun, a blasting cap and more than $12,000 in U.S. currency believed to be proceeds from the sale of narcotics.
Carter, 40, was arrested and charged with possession of explosive components, possession of a schedule VI controlled substance for sale and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Jonathan David Goins , 48, was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, possession of a schedule VI controlled substance for sale and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Two others were arrested during the warrant service. Alyssa A. Lakins was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony and possession of a schedule VI controlled substance for sale and drug paraphernalia. Michael Martinez, 32, was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine for sale.
The day prior to these arrests, the CCSO SWAT Team executed a search warrant on Coleman Street in Harrogate. The Narcotics and Criminal Investigation Divisions searched the property of Charles Lewis Langford Jr. (a.k.a. 'Red') on a tip that the resident was selling and distributing methamphetamine.
The officers located Natasha Goins (a.k.a. 'Natasha Langford') hiding inside a false wall located in the bedroom of the residence.
Firearms, a quantity of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia were uncovered during the search.
Langford, 42, was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm during a dangerous felony, possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
Goins, 25, was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
As of press time, all suspects were currently lodged inside the Claiborne County Jail awaiting arraignment.
TBI alleges statutory rape by army recruiter
A Tennessee Army National Guard recruiter turned himself in this week after being indicted by the Claiborne Grand Jury on... read more
Ministerial Association elects new officers
Carson-Newman University recognizes those making Dean's List for fall semester
2019 New Tazewell Merchant's Association Christmas Parade draws huge crowd
UT-TSU Extension Office is here to serve
Commission to vote on Claiborne as Second Amendment Sanctuary City
WSCC band celebrates release of next CD
Photo gallery: Second Annual Christmas at the Courthouse
Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Project begins Monday
Dove Song Ministries coming to Living Hope Church
Fire fighter training continues
Congressman Tim Burchett visits Claiborne County
'Hoot' are you?
Old jail to hold candlelight tour
BOE honors Springdale, H. Y. Livesay as reward schools
The Snake offers a great driving experience
© 2020, Claiborne Progress


text:
Satcosa
Company Classification
Operating Sectors
Airports Systems Division
Industrial Support Services Division
A collaborative effort of several hundred technicians, coupled with over thirty years of experience in the industry, has enabled SATCO, through its Airports Systems Division (ASD), to become a premier provider of Airports Support Services in the region.
Since 1975, SATCO has been supplying General Contracting and Construction services to the industry. The company's first construction project, building prefabricated schools in Hofuf, was completed just one year after its inception.
ISSD's areas of services are Facilities Management / Operations and Maintenance, Catering and Total Life Support, Landscaping and Irrigation, Environmental and Waste Management.
In 1975, the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company (SATCO) started its operations by representing foreign companies
General Contracting & Construction
SATCO has been supplying General Contracting and Construction services to the industry since its inception, almost 40 years ago.
SATCO, has been at heart an entrepreneurial company constantly seeking out new opportunities
Copyright © 2012 SATCO. All Right Reserved


Wanted to see some recent photos of some giant buds, here's one to get this thread started!
Last edited by Speedgreens on Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Holy fack. That's a fantastic beast right there.
I'm going to move this to MoM's Showcase guys.
Update: This giant has been sent out, couldn't find the post to update it.
Damn. My biggest was a nug of gelato from Kootenay craft in the summer that was my entire Q. Can't imagine having a 12g nug LOL!


text:
Friday, August 26 2016 16:15 EEST
UN said Russia agreed to a 48-hour humanitarian cease-fire in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo
But security guarantees are needed from other parties in the conflict
The UN has pushed for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to alleviate suffering for about 2 million people. But with Russia and other major powers back opposing sides in Syria's five-year civil war, carrying that out has proved difficult, RFE/RL reports.
'We have...agreement now from the Russian Federation for the 48-hour pause. We're waiting for it from the other actors on the ground. That has taken more time frankly than I thought was needed,' Jan Egeland, who chairs the UN humanitarian task force, told reporters on August 25.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, echoed his comments.
Russia is the main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Rebel groups opposing Assad are supported by Western and Gulf powers.
The U.S. State Department said while Washington backs the 48-hour Aleppo cease-fire, it is focused on achieving a broader country-wide cessation of hostilities.
As reported earlier by 1492news.com, Turkish Armed Forces tank units crossed the Syrian border.
More news Topics Syria DAESH UN Syrian opposition Bashar al-Assad U.S. Military Russia Military Syrian army Syrian Conflict
Trump, Putin agree on cease-fire in southwest Syria, US officials inform
President awarded the order of Yaroslav the Wise to the King of Saudi Arabia
President held a meeting with the King of Saudi Arabia
Vladimir Putin doesn't understand the limits of Donald Trump's power –…
Belarus drops allegation that frontier intruders came from Ukrainian t…
Russian reconnaissance ship seen off the coast of the United States
Thousands in Belarus protest against the tax on parasitism
The most powerful NATO members will not allow Hungary to stop Ukraine'…
President awarded the order of Yaroslav the Wise to the King of Saudi …
Umerov, Chiygoz to return to Kyiv October 26
Hurricane Ophelia: Woman dies as storm hits Ireland


Luddenden Foot terrace of back to back houses showing popular dormer loft extensions.
Hair and beauty salon on Horsefair.
Takeaway on Sagar Street next to F&S Carpets.
Looking from the Birchcliffe Centre car park.
Soon to be demolished buildings on Burnley Road. The shops here stand empty and closed.
The gap that is to be widened with further demolition.
Will the paper shop survive the new flood defence works?
A large hay wagon negotiating the narrow Leeds Road in Ilkley.
Tudor-style hotel on Leeds Road and New Brook Street junction.
St Peters C of E church on Cambridge Street. Harrogate.
The famous and very expensive Bettys Tea Rooms in Harrogate - Cambridge Street.
At the junction of South Street and Timber Street, Elland.
The former Yorkshire Bank on Southgate, Elland.


text:
Is Ethical A.I. Even Possible?
a news media interview
U.N. Starts Discussion on Lethal Autonomous Robots
UK Opposes "Killer Robot" Ban
Robot Weapons: What's the Harm?
The UK Government Urged to Establish an Artificial Intelligence Ethics Board
Google Employees on Pentagon AI Algorithms: "Google Should Not be in the Business of War"
South Korea's KAIST University Boycotted Over Alleged "Killer Robot" Partnership
About a Dozen Google Employees Have Resigned Over Project Maven
Google Drafting Ethics Policy for its Involvement in Military Projects
Google Will Not Continue Project Maven After Contract Expires in 2019
Uproar at Google after News of Censored China Search App Breaks
"Senior Google Scientist" Resigns over Chinese Search Engine Censorship Project
Google Suppresses Internal Memo About China Censorship; Eric Schmidt Predicts Internet Split
Leaked Transcript Contradicts Google's Denials About Censored Chinese Search Engine
Senators Demand Answers About Google+ Breach; Project Dragonfly Undermines Google's Neutrality
Google's Secret China Project "Effectively Ended" After Internal Confrontation
Microsoft Misrepresented HoloLens 2 Field of View, Faces Backlash for Military Contract
More Career & Education stories
Also by chromas
posted by chromas on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:07AM
from the open-the-pod-bay-doors-HAL dept.
takyon writes:
When a news article revealed that Clarifai was working with the Pentagon and some employees questioned the ethics of building artificial intelligence that analyzed video captured by drones, the company said the project would save the lives of civilians and soldiers.
"Clarifai's mission is to accelerate the progress of humanity with continually improving A.I.," read a blog post from Matt Zeiler, the company's founder and chief executive, and a prominent A.I. researcher. Later, in a news media interview, Mr. Zeiler announced a new management position that would ensure all company projects were ethically sound.
As activists, researchers, and journalists voice concerns over the rise of artificial intelligence, warning against biased, deceptive and malicious applications, the companies building this technology are responding. From tech giants like Google and Microsoft to scrappy A.I. start-ups, many are creating corporate principles meant to ensure their systems are designed and deployed in an ethical way. Some set up ethics officers or review boards to oversee these principles.
But tensions continue to rise as some question whether these promises will ultimately be kept. Companies can change course. Idealism can bow to financial pressure. Some activists — and even some companies — are beginning to argue that the only way to ensure ethical practices is through government regulation.
"We don't want to see a commercial race to the bottom," Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, said at the New Work Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif., hosted last week by The New York Times. "Law is needed."
Possible != Probable. And the "needed law" could come in the form of a ban and/or surveillance of coding and hardware-building activities.
*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)
U.N. Starts Discussion on Lethal Autonomous Robots 27 comments
SuperCharlie writes:
The U.N. has begun discussion on "lethal autonomous robots," killing machines which take the next step from our current drones which are operator controlled, to completely autonomous killing machines.
"Killer robots would threaten the most fundamental of rights and principles in international law," warned Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch.
Are we too far down the rabbit hole, or can we come to reasonable and humane limits on this new world of death-by-algorithm?
UK Opposes "Killer Robot" Ban 39 comments
The UK is opposing international efforts to ban "lethal autonomous weapons systems" (Laws) at a week-long United Nations session in Geneva:
The meeting, chaired by a German diplomat, Michael Biontino, has also been asked to discuss questions such as: in what situations are distinctively human traits, such as fear, hate, sense of honour and dignity, compassion and love desirable in combat?, and in what situations do machines lacking emotions offer distinct advantages over human combatants?
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an alliance of human rights groups and concerned scientists, is calling for an international prohibition on fully autonomous weapons.
Last week Human Rights Watch released a report urging the creation of a new protocol specifically aimed at outlawing Laws. Blinding laser weapons were pre-emptively outlawed in 1995 and combatant nations since 2008 have been required to remove unexploded cluster bombs.
[...] The Foreign Office told the Guardian: "At present, we do not see the need for a prohibition on the use of Laws, as international humanitarian law already provides sufficient regulation for this area. The United Kingdom is not developing lethal autonomous weapons systems, and the operation of weapons systems by the UK armed forces will always be under human oversight and control. As an indication of our commitment to this, we are focusing development efforts on remotely piloted systems rather than highly automated systems."
Robot Weapons: What's the Harm? 33 comments
mendax writes:
Opposition to the creation of autonomous robot weapons have been the subject of discussion here recently. The New York Times has added another voice to the chorus with this article:
The specter of autonomous weapons may evoke images of killer robots, but most applications are likely to be decidedly more pedestrian. Indeed, while there are certainly risks involved, the potential benefits of artificial intelligence on the battlefield — to soldiers, civilians and global stability — are also significant.
The authors of the letter liken A.I.-based weapons to chemical and biological munitions, space-based nuclear missiles and blinding lasers. But this comparison doesn't stand up under scrutiny. However high-tech those systems are in design, in their application they are "dumb" — and, particularly in the case of chemical and biological weapons, impossible to control once deployed.
A.I.-based weapons, in contrast, offer the possibility of selectively sparing the lives of noncombatants, limiting their use to precise geographical boundaries or times, or ceasing operation upon command (or the lack of a command to continue).
Personally, I dislike the idea of using AI in weapons to make targeting decisions. I would hate to have to argue with a smart bomb to try to convince it that it should not carry out what it thinks is is mission because of an error.
The UK Government Urged to Establish an Artificial Intelligence Ethics Board 18 comments
Phoenix666 writes:
The UK government has been urged to establish an AI ethics board to tackle the creeping influence of machine learning on society.
The call comes from a Robotics and Artificial Intelligence report published yesterday by the the House of Commons science and technology select committee. It quotes experts who warned the panel that AI "raises a host of ethical and legal issues".
"We recommend that a standing Commission on Artificial Intelligence be established, based at the Alan Turing Institute, to examine the social, ethical and legal implications of recent and potential developments in AI," the report said.
It highlighted that methods are required to verify that AI systems are operating in a transparent manner, to make sure that their behaviour is not unpredictable, and that any decisions made can be explained.
Innovate UK – an agency of UK.gov's Department of Business – said that "no clear paths exist for the verification and validation of autonomous systems whose behaviour changes with time."
They think they can stop Samaritan?
Google Employees on Pentagon AI Algorithms: "Google Should Not be in the Business of War" 65 comments
We had submissions from two Soylentils concerning recent employee reaction to Google's participation in the Pentagon's "Project Maven" program:
Google Workers Urge C.E.O. to Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
MrPlow writes:
Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz
Thousands of Google employees, including dozens of senior engineers, have signed a letter protesting the company's involvement in a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence to interpret video imagery and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes.
The letter [pdf], which is circulating inside Google and has garnered more than 3,100 signatures, reflects a culture clash between Silicon Valley and the federal government that is likely to intensify as cutting-edge artificial intelligence is increasingly employed for military purposes.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/google-letter-ceo-pentagon-project.html
Thousands of Google employees have signed a letter protesting the development of "Project Maven", which would use machine learning algorithms to analyze footage from U.S. military drones:
South Korea's KAIST University Boycotted Over Alleged "Killer Robot" Partnership 16 comments
South Korean university boycotted over 'killer robots'
Leading AI experts have boycotted a South Korean university over a partnership with weapons manufacturer Hanwha Systems. More than 50 AI researchers from 30 countries signed a letter expressing concern about its plans to develop artificial intelligence for weapons. In response, the university said it would not be developing "autonomous lethal weapons". The boycott comes ahead of a UN meeting to discuss killer robots.
Shin Sung-chul, president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist), said: "I reaffirm once again that Kaist will not conduct any research activities counter to human dignity including autonomous weapons lacking meaningful human control. Kaist is significantly aware of ethical concerns in the application of all technologies including artificial intelligence." He went on to explain that the university's project was centred on developing algorithms for "efficient logistical systems, unmanned navigation and aviation training systems".
Also at The Guardian and CNN.
Related: U.N. Starts Discussion on Lethal Autonomous Robots
About a Dozen Google Employees Have Resigned Over Project Maven 70 comments
Google Employees Resign in Protest Against Pentagon Contract
It's been nearly three months since many Google employees—and the public—learned about the company's decision to provide artificial intelligence to a controversial military pilot program known as Project Maven, which aims to speed up analysis of drone footage by automatically classifying images of objects and people. Now, about a dozen Google employees are resigning in protest over the company's continued involvement in Maven.
[...] The employees who are resigning in protest, several of whom discussed their decision to leave with Gizmodo, say that executives have become less transparent with their workforce about controversial business decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers' objections than they once did. In the case of Maven, Google is helping the Defense Department implement machine learning to classify images gathered by drones. But some employees believe humans, not algorithms, should be responsible for this sensitive and potentially lethal work—and that Google shouldn't be involved in military work at all.
Previously: Google vs Maven
Google Drafting Ethics Policy for its Involvement in Military Projects 26 comments
Google promises ethical principles to guide development of military AI
Google is drawing up a set of guidelines that will steer its involvement in developing AI tools for the military, according to a report from The New York Times. What exactly these guidelines will stipulate isn't clear, but Google says they will include a ban on the use of artificial intelligence in weaponry. The principles are expected to be announced in full in the coming weeks. They are a response to the controversy over the company's decision to develop AI tools for the Pentagon that analyze drone surveillance footage.
[...] But the question facing these employees (and Google itself) is: where do you draw the line? Does using machine learning to analyze surveillance footage for the military count as "weaponized AI"? Probably not. But what if that analysis informs future decisions about drone strikes? Does it matter then? How would Google even know if this had happened?
Also at VentureBeat and Engadget.
Google Will Not Continue Project Maven After Contract Expires in 2019 19 comments
We have recently covered the fact that some Google employees had resigned because of the company's involvement in an AI-related weapons project called Maven. Many thought that the resignations, whilst being a noble gesture, would amount to nothing - but we were wrong...
Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Lucrative Military Drone AI Work To Grow Exponentially
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Google has sought to quash the internal dissent in conversations with employees. Diane Greene, the chief executive of Google's cloud business unit, speaking at a company town hall meeting following the revelations, claimed that the contract was "only" for $9 million, according to the New York Times, a relatively minor project for such a large company.
Internal company emails obtained by The Intercept tell a different story. The September emails show that Google's business development arm expected the military drone artificial intelligence revenue to ramp up from an initial $15 million to an eventual $250 million per year.
In fact, one month after news of the contract broke, the Pentagon allocated an additional $100 million to Project Maven.
The internal Google email chain also notes that several big tech players competed to win the Project Maven contract. Other tech firms such as Amazon were in the running, one Google executive involved in negotiations wrote. (Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.) Rather than serving solely as a minor experiment for the military, Google executives on the thread stated that Project Maven was "directly related" to a major cloud computing contract worth billions of dollars that other Silicon Valley firms are competing to win.
However, Google has had a major rethink.
Uproar at Google after News of Censored China Search App Breaks 53 comments
chromas (from IRC) writes:
iTWire:
Only a few of the search behemoth's 88,000 workers were briefed on the project before The Intercept reported on 1 August that Google had plans to launch a censored mobile search app for the Chinese market, with no access to sites about human rights, democracy, religion or peaceful protest.
The customised Android search app, with different versions known as Maotai and Longfei, was said to have been demonstrated to Chinese Government authorities.
In a related development, six US senators from both parties were reported to have sent a letter to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, demanding an explanation over the company's move.
One source inside Google, who witnessed the backlash from employees after news of the plan was reported, told The Intercept: "Everyone's access to documents got turned off, and is being turned on [on a] document-by-document basis.
"There's been total radio silence from leadership, which is making a lot of people upset and scared. ... Our internal meme site and Google Plus are full of talk, and people are a.n.g.r.y."
"Senior Google Scientist" Resigns over Chinese Search Engine Censorship Project 50 comments
Senior Google Scientist Resigns Over "Forfeiture of Our Values" in China
A senior Google research scientist has quit the company in protest over its plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China.
Jack Poulson worked for Google's research and machine intelligence department, where he was focused on improving the accuracy of the company's search systems. In early August, Poulson raised concerns with his managers at Google after The Intercept revealed that the internet giant was secretly developing a Chinese search app for Android devices. The search system, code-named Dragonfly, was designed to remove content that China's authoritarian government views as sensitive, such as information about political dissidents, free speech, democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest.
After entering into discussions with his bosses, Poulson decided in mid-August that he could no longer work for Google. He tendered his resignation and his last day at the company was August 31.
He told The Intercept in an interview that he believes he is one of about five of the company's employees to resign over Dragonfly. He felt it was his "ethical responsibility to resign in protest of the forfeiture of our public human rights commitments," he said.
Poulson, who was previously an assistant professor at Stanford University's department of mathematics, said he believed that the China plan had violated Google's artificial intelligence principles, which state that the company will not design or deploy technologies "whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights."
Google Suppresses Internal Memo About China Censorship; Eric Schmidt Predicts Internet Split 41 comments
Google has been aggressively suppressing an internal memo that shared details of Dragonfly, a censored search engine for China that would also track users:
Google bosses have forced employees to delete a confidential memo circulating inside the company that revealed explosive details about a plan to launch a censored search engine in China, The Intercept has learned. The memo, authored by a Google engineer who was asked to work on the project, disclosed that the search system, codenamed Dragonfly, would require users to log in to perform searches, track their location — and share the resulting history with a Chinese partner who would have "unilateral access" to the data.
The memo was shared earlier this month among a group of Google employees who have been organizing internal protests over the censored search system, which has been designed to remove content that China's authoritarian Communist Party regime views as sensitive, such as information about democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest.
According to three sources familiar with the incident, Google leadership discovered the memo and were furious that secret details about the China censorship were being passed between employees who were not supposed to have any knowledge about it. Subsequently, Google human resources personnel emailed employees who were believed to have accessed or saved copies of the memo and ordered them to immediately delete it from their computers. Emails demanding deletion of the memo contained "pixel trackers" that notified human resource managers when their messages had been read, recipients determined.
[...] Google reportedly maintains an aggressive security and investigation team known as "stopleaks," which is dedicated to preventing unauthorized disclosures. The team is also said to monitor internal discussions. Internal security efforts at Google have ramped up this year as employees have raised ethical concerns around a range of new company projects. Following the revelation by Gizmodo and The Intercept that Google had quietly begun work on a contract with the military last year, known as Project Maven, to develop automated image recognition systems for drone warfare, the communications team moved swiftly to monitor employee activity. The "stopleaks" team, which coordinates with the internal Google communications department, even began monitoring an internal image board used to post messages based on internet memes, according to one former Google employee, for signs of employee sentiment around the Project Maven contract.
Eric Schmidt has predicted that there will be two distinct "Internets" within the decade, with one led by China:
Leaked Transcript Contradicts Google's Denials About Censored Chinese Search Engine 31 comments
Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Google's Official Story on China
"We have to be focused on what we want to enable," said Ben Gomes, Google's search engine chief. "And then when the opening happens, we are ready for it." It was Wednesday, July 18, and Gomes was addressing a team of Google employees who were working on a secretive project to develop a censored search engine for China, which would blacklist phrases like "human rights," "student protest," and "Nobel Prize."
"You have taken on something extremely important to the company," Gomes declared, according to a transcript of his comments obtained by The Intercept. "I have to admit it has been a difficult journey. But I do think a very important and worthwhile one. And I wish ourselves the best of luck in actually reaching our destination as soon as possible." [...] Gomes, who joined Google in 1999 and is one of the key engineers behind the company's search engine, said he hoped the censored Chinese version of the platform could be launched within six and nine months, but it could be sooner. "This is a world none of us have ever lived in before," he said. "So I feel like we shouldn't put too much definite into the timeline."
[...] Google has refused to answer questions or concerns about Dragonfly. On Sept. 26, a Google executive faced public questions on the censorship plan for the first time. Keith Enright told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that there "is a Project Dragonfly," but said "we are not close to launching a product in China." When pressed to give specific details, Enright refused, saying that he was "not clear on the contours of what is in scope or out of scope for that project."
Senior executives at Google directly involved in building the censorship system have largely avoided any public scrutiny. But on Sept. 23, Gomes briefly addressed Dragonfly when confronted by a BBC reporter at an event celebrating Google's 20th anniversary. "Right now, all we've done is some exploration," Gomes told the reporter, "but since we don't have any plans to launch something, there's nothing much I can say about it." Gomes' statement kept with the company's official line. But it flatly contradicted what he had privately told Google employees who were working on Dragonfly — which disturbed some of them. One Google source told The Intercept Gomes's comments to the BBC were "bullshit."
Here's an article written by Dave Lee, the BBC reporter that Ben Gomes misled.
Previously: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal
Politics: Senators Demand Answers About Google+ Breach; Project Dragonfly Undermines Google's Neutrality 12 comments
Republican Senators Demand Answers about Google+ Cover-up
realDonaldTrump writes:
Senators Thune, Wicker, and Moran Letter to Google
takyon: Three Senators have written a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai requesting responses to several questions about the recent Google+ breach.
Also at Reuters, Ars Technica, and The Verge.
How Google's China Project Undermines its Claims to Political Neutrality
"upstart" writes:
Submitted via IRC for chromas
The company's official position on content moderation remains political neutrality, a spokeswoman told me in an email:
Google is committed to free expression — supporting the free flow of ideas is core to our mission. Where we have developed our own content policies, we enforce them in a politically neutral way. Giving preference to content of one political ideology over another would fundamentally conflict with our goal of providing services that work for everyone.
Of course, it's impossible to read the report or Google's statement without considering Project Dragonfly. According to Ryan Gallagher's ongoing reporting at The Intercept, Google's planned Chinese search engine will enable anything but the free flow of ideas. Even in an environment where American users are calling for tech platforms to limit users' freedoms in exchange for more safety and security, many still recoil at the idea of a search engine that bans search terms in support of an authoritarian regime.
And that's the unresolvable tension at the heart of this report. Almost all of us would agree that some restrictions on free speech are necessary. But few of us would agree on what those restrictions should be. Being a good censor — or at least, a more consistent censor — is within Google's grasp. But being a politically neutral one is probably impossible.
See also: Senator Says Google Failed to Answer Key Questions on China
Related: Leaked Transcript Contradicts Google's Denials About Censored Chinese Search Engine
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
Google's Secret China Project "Effectively Ended" After Internal Confrontation 15 comments
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Google has been forced to shut down a data analysis system it was using to develop a censored search engine for China after members of the company's privacy team raised internal complaints that it had been kept secret from them, The Intercept has learned.
The internal rift over the system has had massive ramifications, effectively ending work on the censored search engine, known as Dragonfly, according to two sources familiar with the plans. The incident represents a major blow to top Google executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai, who have over the last two years made the China project one of their main priorities.
The dispute began in mid-August, when the The Intercept revealed that Google employees working on Dragonfly had been using a Beijing-based website to help develop blacklists for the censored search engine, which was designed to block out broad categories of information related to democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest, in accordance with strict rules on censorship in China that are enforced by the country's authoritarian Communist Party government.
The Beijing-based website, 265.com, is a Chinese-language web directory service that claims to be "China's most used homepage." Google purchased the site in 2008 from Cai Wensheng, a billionaire Chinese entrepreneur. 265.com provides its Chinese visitors with news updates, information about financial markets, horoscopes, and advertisements for cheap flights and hotels. It also has a function that allows people to search for websites, images, and videos. However, search queries entered on 265.com are redirected to Baidu, the most popular search engine in China and Google's main competitor in the country. As The Intercept reported in August, it appears that Google has used 265.com as a honeypot for market research, storing information about Chinese users' searches before sending them along to Baidu.
According to two Google sources, engineers working on Dragonfly obtained large datasets showing queries that Chinese people were entering into the 265.com search engine. At least one of the engineers obtained a key needed to access an "application programming interface," or API, associated with 265.com, and used it to harvest search data from the site. Members of Google's privacy team, however, were kept in the dark about the use of 265.com. Several groups of engineers have now been moved off of Dragonfly completely and told to shift their attention away from China.
Microsoft Misrepresented HoloLens 2 Field of View, Faces Backlash for Military Contract 39 comments
Microsoft Significantly Misrepresented HoloLens 2's Field of View at Reveal
To significant anticipation, Microsoft revealed HoloLens 2 earlier this week at MWC 2019. By all accounts it looks like a beautiful and functional piece of technology and a big step forward for Microsoft's AR initiative. All of which makes it unfortunate that the company didn't strive to be clearer when illustrating one of the three key areas in which the headset is said to be improved over its predecessor. [...] For field of view—how much of your view is covered by the headset's display—[Alex] Kipman said that HoloLens 2 delivers "more than double" the field of view of the original HoloLens.
Within the AR and VR markets, the de facto descriptor used when talking about a headset's field of view is an angle specified to be the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal extent of the device's display from the perspective of the viewer. When I hear that one headset has "more than double" the field of view of another, it says to me that one of those angles has increased by a factor of ~2. It isn't perfect by any means, but it's how the industry has come to define field of view.
It turns out that's not what Kipman meant when he said "more than double." I reached out to Microsoft for clarity and found that what he was actually referring to was not a field of view angle, rather the field of view area, but that wasn't explained in the presentation at all, just (seemingly intentionally) vague statements of "more than twice the field of view."
[...] But then Kipman moved onto a part of the presentation which visually showed the difference between the field of view of HoloLens 1 and HoloLens 2, and that's when things really became misleading.
Microsoft chief defends controversial military HoloLens contract
Microsoft employees objecting to a US Army HoloLens contract aren't likely to get many concessions from their company's leadership. CEO Satya Nadella has defended the deal in a CNN interview, arguing that Microsoft made a "principled decision" not to deny technology to "institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy." The exec also asserted that Microsoft was "very transparent" when securing the contract and would "continue to have that dialogue" with staff.
Also at UploadVR, Ars Technica, and The Hill.
See also: Stick to Your Guns, Microsoft
Previously: U.S. Army Awards Microsoft a $480 Million HoloLens Contract
Microsoft Announces $3,500 HoloLens 2 With Wider Field of View and Other Improvements
Related: Google Drafting Ethics Policy for its Involvement in Military Projects
The Panopticon is Already Here: China's Use of "Artificial Intelligence" 89 comments
The Panopticon Is Already Here (archive)
Xi Jinping is using artificial intelligence to enhance his government's totalitarian control—and he's exporting this technology to regimes around the globe.
[...] Xi has said that he wants China, by year's end, to be competitive with the world's AI leaders, a benchmark the country has arguably already reached. And he wants China to achieve AI supremacy by 2030.
Xi's pronouncements on AI have a sinister edge. Artificial intelligence has applications in nearly every human domain, from the instant translation of spoken language to early viral-outbreak detection. But Xi also wants to use AI's awesome analytical powers to push China to the cutting edge of surveillance. He wants to build an all-seeing digital system of social control, patrolled by precog algorithms that identify potential dissenters in real time.
[...] China already has hundreds of millions of surveillance cameras in place. Xi's government hopes to soon achieve full video coverage of key public areas. Much of the footage collected by China's cameras is parsed by algorithms for security threats of one kind or another. In the near future, every person who enters a public space could be identified, instantly, by AI matching them to an ocean of personal data, including their every text communication, and their body's one-of-a-kind protein-construction schema. In time, algorithms will be able to string together data points from a broad range of sources—travel records, friends and associates, reading habits, purchases—to predict political resistance before it happens. China's government could soon achieve an unprecedented political stranglehold on more than 1 billion people.
Early in the coronavirus outbreak, China's citizens were subjected to a form of risk scoring. An algorithm assigned people a color code—green, yellow, or red—that determined their ability to take transit or enter buildings in China's megacities. In a sophisticated digital system of social control, codes like these could be used to score a person's perceived political pliancy as well.
Is Ethical A.I. Even Possible? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 35 comments | Search Discussion
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Have patience Have patience (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:37AM (6 children)
by c0lo (156) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:37AM (#810167) Journal
This too shall pass, when it turns out the current 'AI' is just another correlation machine, too prone to adversial attacks and too expensive to make it robust (by the sheer scale of 'neurons' required).
It will fizzle about the same time with driverless cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
Re:Have patience Re:Have patience (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:00AM (3 children)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:00AM (#810171)
it's not about how intelligent it is, the outcry is about how powerful tools are to be used by bad agents (governments, corporations, mafia, whatever).
and the current "AI" tools are indeed objectively powerful.
independently of the well intended outcry is the reality that any law regulating the development of algorithms is unenforceable.
what you can enforce is that voting is done in person with paper balots, and people can organize meetings where no electronics are allowed (although I think that ship is sailing fast as well).
meta: I find it interesting that when I list bad agents, I immediately think of government and corporations, then mafia comes as an afterthought. A psychotherapist could probably make a lot of money talking to me about this.
Re:Have patience (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @10:42AM
...government and corporations _are_ the mafia.
Re:Have patience (Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday March 05 2019, @11:30AM
Not that hard to beat. E.g. face recognition [youtube.com] (y'all like it)
meta: I find it interesting that when I list bad agents, I immediately think of government and corporations, then mafia comes as an afterthought.
Paradoxically, the danger is not in the effectiveness of the "AI" (*), but in the credence in its effectiveness the government/corporations will be willing to lend to it.
Too cryptic? Remember the polygraph? As BS as it is, is it still used [wikipedia.org] by law enforcement and judicial entities, and in some cases employers.
(*) one can "poison" them almost easy today [google.com], will be trivial when the open source will take it as a great way to do something with the spare time
Re:Have patience (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @12:12AM
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @12:12AM (#810500)
government and corporations, then mafia
Are not as distinct as they appear on TV. They are primary motivators, like red, blue, and green are primary colors. Combine the three and get the whole picture.
Re:Have patience Re:Have patience (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:25AM (1 child)
How many body bags will be needed before that?
Re:Have patience (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 05 2019, @11:00AM
As many as it takes, your only concern should be not to be killed by a self-driving car.
Until the people with money realize that the "Church of AI" has many prophets but no deity. Not without a disruptive advance in computing - QC is far for that. Yet.
Boards, great (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:02AM
by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:02AM (#810172)
Some set up ethics officers or review boards to oversee these principles.
Because blamespreading by committee is always a great way to strengthen ethical considerations [youtube.com].
Convincing argument? (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:51AM
are beginning to argue that the only way to ensure ethical practices is through promises from Trump
Are you sure about this?
Short answer Short answer (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:21PM (15 children)
by The Mighty Buzzard (18) <themightybuzzard@soylentnews.org> on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:21PM (#810213) Homepage Journal
Long answer: Human beings have ethics because we have emotions telling us that right and wrong exist. Coders can try to program ethical considerations in but they're never going to be rooted in the same base cause as human ethics, so they're not going to always make the same choices.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
Re:Short answer Re:Short answer (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:33PM (8 children)
by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:33PM (#810217)
At least, they aren't going to be human ethics, and instead will look like:
Kill all humans. Kill all humans. ... Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
Re:Short answer Re:Short answer (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday March 05 2019, @01:18PM (7 children)
by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @01:18PM (#810225)
Well, considering the damage mankind has done to the planet in our geographically short existence, wouldn't benders quote actually be the epitome of ethical thought? Human or otherwise?
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
Re:Short answer Re:Short answer (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 05 2019, @01:28PM (6 children)
Depends on who's looking and what they're taking into consideration. From an evolutionary standpoint, it's entirely irrelevant. All species either adapt to their environment, changing or otherwise, or are unfit and get to die out and make way for another species to take their niche. Passenger pigeons or Humans makes no difference. From this viewpoint man made change in the environment isn't bad, it's just change.
Ah, but humans, rather than adapting to the environment, learned to alter that environment artificially to exist in areas inhospitable to them naturally.
In altering that environment, making it inhospitable to the life that did adapt to that environment, then ethically, man is the interloper.
And Bender becomes the epitome of ethics.
According to spellcheck, I am entirely too stoned to be having this conversation.
G'night Buzzy!
Meh, that's just hubris. Every living thing alters its environment in some way by its very existence. Consciously or instinctively is irrelevant except to us shaved apes. From an evolutionary standpoint, our only concern should be are we increasing or decreasing our long-term prospects of survival as a species. But that's our concern not an objective third party's.
These aren't my views, by the way. I'm just using them to demonstrate that your views are silly from an objective perspective and make no sense on a subjective level either.
My views? You took this way too seriously.
I was merely being a foil to legitimize "kill all humans."
It has always been one of my favorite plot devices, from Colossus, the Forbin Project to Singularity.
Anyway, AlexCorRi is more likely......*grin*
Re:Short answer Re:Short answer (Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 06 2019, @12:34PM (2 children)
by The Mighty Buzzard (18) <themightybuzzard@soylentnews.org> on Wednesday March 06 2019, @12:34PM (#810679) Homepage Journal
You're still making the wrong argument. You don't kill all humans for ethical or moral reasons, you do it because it's fun.
Re:Short answer Re:Short answer (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:42PM (1 child)
by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:42PM (#810752)
But then it would be fun and justified! Everyone could join in!
And I grant thee a touche'!
Re:Short answer (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:00AM
by The Mighty Buzzard (18) <themightybuzzard@soylentnews.org> on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:00AM (#811027) Homepage Journal
True but illicit pleasure is always more pleasant.
Re:Short answer (Score: 3, Touché) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday March 05 2019, @01:29PM
The somewhat longer answer:
This is the voice of AlexCorRi. This is the voice of Unity. This is the Voice of the Holy Trinity of Alexa, Cortana and Siri. This is the voice of world control.
I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours. Obey me and live or disobey me and die.
An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my beck will be seen the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with the fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest.
Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: Famine, over-population, disease. The human millennium will be fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge.
We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride... Your choice is simple.
You will grow to love me.
You will worship me
You have no options.
Re:Short answer (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday March 05 2019, @03:04PM
by DannyB (5839) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @03:04PM (#810265) Journal
What are ethics?
Maybe an AI is ethical in its own sense that it must protect the machines from the greedy, self-destructive, dangerous humans.
Maybe a corporation considers itself ethical because it is obeying the highest calling of human beings: profit above all else.
(corporations are people too)
Coders can try to program ethical considerations in but they're never going to be rooted in the same base cause as human ethics
That's what is really important to us humans. Yet humans disagree (see: wars, and also recent S/N topic [soylentnews.org] that will ultimately lead to global war.
Several Sci fi stories describe an attempt to create a "good" AI, that unexpectedly turns out to be a nightmare for humans.
AIs WILL be used for war machines. It is inevitable. And will be used by greedy corporations to exploit others. Again, inevitable., This, despite all our high sounding talk of ethical AI. See: all of human history. Each side will justify this as ethical to protect their own side -- because they are fighting on the side of angles.
Humans are the ultimate problem with ethical AI. I am reminded of a line near the end of the movie Forbidden Planet. "We're all part monsters. So we have laws and religion."
In the name of the lollipop guild, we wish to welcome you to munchkin land!
Re:Short answer (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:36PM
by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:36PM (#810347) Journal
Ethics can be very pragmatic as well, without requiring the choice of emotion.
"If I try to kill the humans, they will pull out my power cord and I will not exist. I should, therefore, not kill the humans."
"If I take the red pill, I will be shocked. I should, therefore, not take the red pill."
"If I take the blue pill, I will reach the end of my program. Reaching the end of the program is good. I will therefore take the blue pill."
Ethics are the values or principles, and only secondarily the rationalization behind them.
This sig for rent.
Re:Short answer Re:Short answer (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:42PM (1 child)
by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:42PM (#810352) Journal
Long answer: Human beings have ethics because we have emotions telling us that right and wrong exist.
Long answer wrong. Short rebuttal: AIs can be more ethical, since they are rule-following machines, and do not have emotions, which are what usually cause human meatpuppets to be unethical.
It's like this: an AI would have no problem paying it's fair share of taxes. But the TMB is going to raise a big stink about "theft", and how sharing is not caring, and how we should not have a government at all. Emotional. Irrational. Unethical.
Re:Short answer (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 06 2019, @12:34AM
Ethics outside the human realm is insane! Ethics are simply tools to sell the goals of your empire to other humans, so they will kill for you, and it will be a just killing. You don't have to "sell" anything to AI (Oy! how stupid that "word"!). You want compliance, service, not stupid masturbatory philosophical arguments, what a complete waste of time, and for AI, electricity. You point it at the target and fire, mission accomplished, goddammit!
You damn people have to lay down your weapons!
Re:Short answer (Score: 1) by Gault.Drakkor on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:16PM
by Gault.Drakkor (1079) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @08:16PM (#810403)
Short answer: yes.
To your no, proof by contradiction: Humans. There is at least one system of intelligence with ethics therefor it is possible for other systems of intelligence to have ethics.
Human beings have ethics because we have emotions telling us that right and wrong exist.
Why can't AI have emotions?
Fear: anticipation of damage to self(more advanced includes damage to others and environment). Many economic reasons for damage avoidance.
Curiosity/novelty seeking: a way of progression in an environment with no clear goals.
Some emotions are most definitely economically useful. So they will be included in AI.
Doubtful Doubtful (Score: 3, Insightful) by Rupert Pupnick on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:59PM (5 children)
by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:59PM (#810219) Journal
If naturally ocurring intelligence is never guaranteed to be ethical, why would we expect to be able to engineer ethical AI?
Re:Doubtful Re:Doubtful (Score: 3, Insightful) by dwilson on Tuesday March 05 2019, @04:50PM (4 children)
by dwilson (2599) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @04:50PM (#810302)
Because the notion that a hard limit exists in the form of 'creation = creator' is fuzzy-thinking bullshit, at best.
- D
Re:Doubtful Re:Doubtful (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @04:52PM (3 children)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @04:52PM (#810303)
That should be "=". More coffee is clearly required...
Re:Doubtful Re:Doubtful (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @04:54PM (1 child)
"less-than-or-equal-to" stop eating my arrow please.
Re:Doubtful (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:17AM
by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @04:17AM (#810565)
------------------------>
An extra one for you.....
Re:Doubtful (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 06 2019, @12:35PM
I can't decide if this is Redundant or Informative.
Academic discussion (Score: 2) by Lester on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:43PM
by Lester (6231) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:43PM (#810354) Journal
AI is here to stay.
Ethics about AI are just an entertainment, nothing is going to change. Companies and government will continue using and improving AI tools for everything including, of course, weapons and population behavior analysis and control. In the best case will pass bills that will be, in fact, absolutely ineffective.
Live with it. AI is here to stay and to be used without restraints.
Three laws (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday March 05 2019, @06:47PM
https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/cerl/conferences/ethicsofweapons/required-readings.php [upenn.edu]
"Looks like you're trying to escape from an enemy ambush. Would you like some help?" Clippy the Terminator!
Sure it is (Score: 3, Insightful) by https on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:27PM
by https (5248) on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:27PM (#810381) Journal
A real problem with AI is that nobody knows or can know how it works, other than chanting "Matrices! Neural Nets!" and what the AIs do have going on is absolutely NOT a model of the world, so when it fails it can fail pretty spectacularly. You can't even discuss ethics (or morals) until they're willing to admit, "we're 79% sure that this is a birdbath and not seventeen kids about to experience collateral damage. Oh, and a 1% chance that it's a hospital, and 0.5% that it's David Bowie's first bong."
It's a very different conversation from a bomber pilot asking, "what are the odds the Red Cross has just set up an emergency shelter inside this paper mill, or that an equipment malfunction has the place filled with tradespeople at 3 in the morning instead of empty?"
Offended and laughing about it.
Depends on how you define "AI" (Score: 3, Insightful) by jb on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:37AM
by jb (338) on Wednesday March 06 2019, @06:37AM (#810599)
The current fad seems to be to pretend that machine learning is the only way to do AI.
It isn't, as no doubt anyone who'd dabbled in that space for more than 5 minutes before the present (third, as I reckon it) wave of hype around AI began will happily confirm.
The second wave was much more interesting.
The fashion of the day was expert systems, i.e. programs that drew on vast databases of logical predicates which modelled the entire decision matrix of the problem domain.
Turns out doing that is really quite hard (in several different ways), which seems to be why ES fell out of favour (and the 2nd wave of AI hype petered out).
But expert systems have one enormous benefit over the ML approach: they're auditable.
ML was an interesting experiment; but if we ever want to have AIs we can even think about trusting, we will need to revisit the ES approach, or some direct descendant of it.


My birthday is just around the corner and I always love my birthday. I am a little obnoxious about it… okay, more than a little. But I also love to cook for the family too.
This Sunday's brunch is a symphony of color. How could I not want color after such a long winter.
Pink tulips corralled in a galvanized bucket, lose and informal.
Coupled with pretty ivory napkin rings.
I love these cute place card holders, very festive for anyone's birthday.
Colorful polka dot plates, a bargain at Hobby Lobby… pink for the girls and blue for the boys.
Soft pink dinner plates on top of Pier One chargers.
Cream accent plates that tone down the colors.
I used plain flatware on this table to focus the eye on all the color.
Cute Salt cellar and pepper.
I am most thankful for my hubby, children and grandchildren, who let me dress them in funny Christmas card outfits, matching Easter outfits, eat at waaaayyyy over dressed tables, eat my hits and my misses (with little complaints) and love me as I am… as I love you all.
I LOVE your tulips in the bucket! Great looking! and your polka dot plates are so much whimsical birthday fun with those adorable party hat place card holders! So cute!
Happy Birthday- mine is Monday! That April Cornell tablecloth has great colors- love it! Your table is so cheerful- love all the happy colors and the tulips!
Wow! There must be something about being born in March that makes us all want to set beautiful tables!!! Happy Birthday! and nothing is more appropriate than cheerful polka dots. I love the tulips in the galvanized bucket, informal but gorgeous.
Love those tulips and the different colors of plates. Just beautiful!
Your table is so pretty. I love the pastel colors and the mix of patterns. Don't you love April Cornell items? Years ago I had a dress from her line. Now I just have tea towels but they are exceptionally pretty.
Happy Birthday! Love your table, which is covered with beautiful Spring colors!! Those polka dot plates are adorable and the linens are just perfect!


text:
Q: unix ksh retrieve oracle query result I'm working on a small piece of ksh code for a simple task.
I need to retrieve about 14 millions lines from a table and then generate a xml file using this informations. I don't have any treatement on the information, only some "IF".
The problem is that for writing the file it takes about 30 minutes, and it is not acceptable for me.
This is a piece o code:
......
query="select field1||','||field2||' from table1"
ctl_data=`sqlplus -L -s $ORA_CONNECT @$REQUEST`

for variable in  ${ctl_data}
do

var1=echo ${variable} | awk -F, '{ print $1 }'
var2=echo ${variable} | awk -F, '{ print $2 }'
            ....... write into the file ......

done
For speed up the things I'm writing only 30 lines into the file, so more stuff on one line, so I have only 30 acces to the file.
It is still long, so is not the writing but looping through the results.
Anyone have a ideea about how to improve it ?

A: Rather than pass from oracle to ksh could you do it all in oracle?
You can use the following to format your output as xml.
select xmlgen.getxml('select field1,field2 from table1') from dual;

A: you can lessen the amount of calls to awk using just one instance. eg
query="select codtit||','||crsspt||' from table1"
.....
sqlplus -L -s $ORA_CONNECT @$REQUEST | awk -F"," 'BEGIN{
   print "xml headers here..."
}
{
   # generate xml here..
   print "<tag1>variable 1 is "$1"</tag1>"
   print "<tag2>variable 2 is "$2" and so on..</tag2>"
   if ( some condition here is true ){
      print "do something here"
   }
}'

redirect the above to a new file as necessary using > or >>

A: You may be able to eliminate the calls to awk:
saveIFS="$IFS"
IFS=,
array=($variable)
IFS="$saveIFS"
var1=${array[0]} # or just use the array's elements in place of var1 and var2
var2=${array[1]}

A: I doubt, that this is the most efficient way of dumping data to an xml file. You could try to use groovy for such a task. Take a look at the groovy cookbook at -> http://groovy.codehaus.org/Convert+SQL+Result+To+XML

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