text:
» Newt Gingrich
Terraformer
From: Lancashire
Well, he's the most pro-space potential President there is at the moment... which unfortunately may cost him the candidacy...
"I guarantee you that at some point, everything's going to go south on you, and you're going to say, 'This is it, this is how I end.' Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work." - Mark Watney
From: Madrid, Spain
Re: Newt Gingrich
Can't help the feeling he is on it for all the wrong reasons... But what do I know, the politics of the US is foreign territory for me. I guess if he ends up president and does something important to NASA, I'll just treat it as a deal with the devil: you get what you asked for, but maybe you are not too happy about it.
Rune. I can barely make sense of the politics here anyway.
In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a "bad move"
JoshNH4H
From: Pullman, WA
I would say that he does have a relatively pro-space history compared to the rest of the candidates in the field, though at this point congress is more standing in the way of achievement in space than the president.
-Josh
I wouldn't say Obama is in anyway pro-space... after all, one of NASA's priorities is to make Muslims feel good about their historic contributions to science...
I didn't even know there was a Space Caucus until I read up on Gingrich - I've been getting most of my info about his space politics from @jeff_foust, who's also been tweeting a lot about Stratolaunch.
Tom Kalbfus
I really don't think Gingrich's space advocacy made a difference one way or another. I think in the future, it will all depend on private enterprise, I think government's role is to give them a shove out the door, and once they have profitable business interests in space, those interests will continue even after fickle political support by the government dries up! There are a number of private space launch vehicles being developed now, I think some of them will succeed. I think we're approaching the era where lobbying Congress for funds to explore space will shortly cease to matter, once the costs of space access is brought down low enough, there will be a space "land rush" and it will be up to individuals and businesses to explore and colonize space.
Don't be fooled by Gingrich. I've watched him for decades. He tells his audiences whatever they want to hear, like so many hack politicians. The reality is quite different from the appearance.
He's better at confrontation than governance, too. He led the radical GOP types in their efforts that created multiple shutdowns in the 1980's. That's the real roots of today's Tea Party & similar radicals.
The Tea Party would be right at home in space, space offers them freedom, which is what they want, from heavy government interference and control, after all isn't that what the UN Space Treaty states, no Earth bound government may own or control any part of space? Besides, the Centralized Government Control model has failed with Project Apollo, if the government enables, it also disables. When the political will dried up for taxpayers funding Apollo Apollo got cancelled, the real action from now on will be with private corporations and individual efforts. I think we've seen the end of big Apollo style efforts, the next footprints on the Moon or Mars will likely be made by corporate astronauts or tourists and private adventurers, In a matter of a decade, it will be an entirely new ballgame in space! Space is the place where people can expand and try out their own ideas. We've been begging Congress to fund various space programs for decades now, and I think in the future the government is not going to have much money to spare, the best thing to do is encourage growth in the economy and develop the right technologies for cheap access to space.
Big government is inherently intrusive, but is also inherently required for large, dense populations. Taken to extreme: in a room packed with people, all must sit down at once for any to sit down at all.
Outfits like the tea party might make more common sense if their agenda was population reduction, so that we really could have a smaller, less intrusive government. Very sparse population is what space offers, and that's why folks out there will be freer than folks down here. It ain't really about "politics", and never really was. Population also starts with a "p", but that's where the similarities end.
Actually, I quite agree that the next big feats in space will be done by the commercial folks, not so much the government agencies. The very successful unmanned planetary probes are pretty much their last gasp, unless some drastic change happens. We're in a transition right now, with the commercial folks still hamstrung by government-generated rules and mission objectives. Once that model is fully broken, really exciting progress will be made by the commercial entities, and men will finally leave LEO once again.
Spacex isn't the only commercial player with a vision and some new ideas to offer. But they are the most visible right now. And the furthest along, apparently.
So I say avoid large dense populations. I don't want my freedom taken away and a number stamped on my forehead! Saying you can't have that child or we'll come and arrest you is also a limit on freedom. I'm all for self-replicating machines, that way we can avoid crowding humans together, taking away their freedoms and reducing them to cogs in a vast economic machine. We are so close to human level machine intelligence, about a decade or so away, it we can task those before they escape our control to get us off the planet, that would be a good thing.
Srsly? You think we're that close? Far, and certainly no cigar.
Here are some predictions by Ray Kurzweil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction … y_Kurzweil
I've highlighted the relevant parts in Bold.
The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990)[edit]
Early 2000s[edit]
Translating telephones allow people to speak to each other in different languages.
Machines designed to transcribe speech into computer text allow deaf people to understand spoken words.
Exoskeletal, robotic leg prostheses allow the paraplegic to walk.
Telephone calls are routinely screened by intelligent answering machines that ask questions to determine the call's nature and priority.
"Cybernetic chauffeurs" can drive cars for humans and can be retrofitted into existing cars. They work by communicating with other vehicles and with sensors embedded along the roads.
Early 21st century[edit]
The classroom is dominated by computers. Intelligent courseware that can tailor itself to each student by recognizing their strengths and weaknesses. Media technology allows students to manipulate and interact with virtual depictions of the systems and personalities they are studying.
A small number of highly skilled people dominates the entire production sector. Tailoring of products for individuals is common.
Drugs are designed and tested in simulations that mimic the human body.
Blind people navigate and read text using machines that can visually recognize features of their environment.
Note: Since the "Early 2000s" and "Early 21st century" predictions are both listed before the "2010" predictions in the technology Chronology, it can be assumed that the timeframe for the first two is 2000–2010.
PCs are capable of answering queries by accessing information wirelessly via the Internet.
2020–2050[edit]
Phone calls entail three-dimensional holographic images of both people.
By 2020, there will be a new World government.
A computer passes the Turing Test, becoming the first true Artificial Intelligence.
Kurzweil has even wagered that his predictions will be true, on the site Long Bets Betting against Mitchell Kapor, founder of Lotus Software Corporation for a payout of $20,000, or $10,000 each.
Centuries hence[edit]
Computer intelligence becomes superior to human intelligence in all areas.
The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999)[edit]
Most books will be read on screens rather than paper.
Most text will be created using speech recognition technology.
Intelligent roads and driverless cars will be in use, mostly on highways.
People use personal computers the size of rings, pins, credit cards and books.
Personal worn computers provide monitoring of body functions, automated identity and directions for navigation.
Cables are disappearing. Computer peripheries use wireless communication.
People can talk to their computer to give commands.
Computer displays built into eyeglasses for augmented reality are used.
Computers can recognize their owner's face from a picture or video.
Three-dimensional chips are commonly used.
Sound producing speakers are being replaced with very small chip-based devices that can place high resolution sound anywhere in three-dimensional space.
A 1000 dollar pc can perform about a trillion calculations per second.
There is increasing interest in massively parallel neural nets, genetic algorithms and other forms of "chaotic" or complexity theory computing.
Research has been initiated on reverse engineering the brain through both destructive and non-invasive scans.
Autonomous nanoengineered machines have been demonstrated and include their own computational controls.
The computational capacity of a $4,000 computing device (in 1999 dollars) is approximately equal to the computational capability of the human brain (20 quadrillion calculations per second).
The summed computational powers of all computers is comparable to the total brainpower of the human race.
Computers are embedded everywhere in the environment (inside of furniture, jewelry, walls, clothing, etc.).
People experience 3-D virtual reality through glasses and contact lenses that beam images directly to their retinas (retinal display). Coupled with an auditory source (headphones), users can remotely communicate with other people and access the Internet.
These special glasses and contact lenses can deliver "augmented reality" and "virtual reality" in three different ways. First, they can project "heads-up-displays" (HUDs) across the user's field of vision, superimposing images that stay in place in the environment regardless of the user's perspective or orientation. Second, virtual objects or people could be rendered in fixed locations by the glasses, so when the user's eyes look elsewhere, the objects appear to stay in their places. Third, the devices could block out the "real" world entirely and fully immerse the user in a virtual reality environment.
People communicate with their computers via two-way speech and gestures instead of with keyboards. Furthermore, most of this interaction occurs through computerized assistants with different personalities that the user can select or customize. Dealing with computers thus becomes more and more like dealing with a human being.
Most business transactions or information inquiries involve dealing with a simulated person.
Most people own more than one PC, though the concept of what a "computer" is has changed considerably: Computers are no longer limited in design to laptops or CPUs contained in a large box connected to a monitor. Instead, devices with computer capabilities come in all sorts of unexpected shapes and sizes.
Cables connecting computers and peripherals have almost completely disappeared.
Rotating computer hard drives are no longer used.
Three-dimensional nanotube lattices are the dominant computing substrate.
Massively parallel neural nets and genetic algorithms are in wide use.
Destructive scans of the brain and noninvasive brain scans have allowed scientists to understand the brain much better. The algorithms that allow the relatively small genetic code of the brain to construct a much more complex organ are being transferred into computer neural nets.
Pinhead-sized cameras are everywhere.
Nanotechnology is more capable and is in use for specialized applications, yet it has not yet made it into the mainstream. "Nanoengineered machines" begin to be used in manufacturing.
Thin, lightweight, handheld displays with very high resolutions are the preferred means for viewing documents. The aforementioned computer eyeglasses and contact lenses are also used for this same purpose, and all download the information wirelessly.
Computers have made paper books and documents almost completely obsolete.
Most learning is accomplished through intelligent, adaptive courseware presented by computer-simulated teachers. In the learning process, human adults fill the counselor and mentor roles instead of being academic instructors. These assistants are often not physically present, and help students remotely.
Students still learn together and socialize, though this is often done remotely via computers.
All students have access to computers.
Most human workers spend the majority of their time acquiring new skills and knowledge.
Blind people wear special glasses that interpret the real world for them through speech. Sighted people also use these glasses to amplify their own abilities.
Retinal and neural implants also exist, but are in limited use because they are less useful.
Deaf people use special glasses that convert speech into text or signs, and music into images or tactile sensations. Cochlear and other implants are also widely used.
People with spinal cord injuries can walk and climb steps using computer-controlled nerve stimulation and exoskeletal robotic walkers.
Computers are also found inside of some humans in the form of cybernetic implants. These are most commonly used by disabled people to regain normal physical faculties (i.e. - Retinal implants allow the blind to see and spinal implants coupled with mechanical legs allow the paralyzed to walk).
Language translating machines are of much higher quality, and are routinely used in conversations.
Effective language technologies (natural language processing, speech recognition, speech synthesis) exist
Access to the Internet is completely wireless and provided by wearable or implanted computers.
People are able to wirelessly access the Internet at all times from almost anywhere
Devices that deliver sensations to the skin surface of their users (i.e.--tight body suits and gloves) are also sometimes used in virtual reality to complete the experience. "Virtual sex"—in which two people are able to have sex with each other through virtual reality, or in which a human can have sex with a "simulated" partner that only exists on a computer—becomes a reality.
Just as visual- and auditory virtual reality have come of age, haptic technology has fully matured and is completely convincing, yet requires the user to enter a V.R. booth. It is commonly used for computer sex and remote medical examinations. It is the preferred sexual medium since it is safe and enhances the experience.
Worldwide economic growth has continued. There has not been a global economic collapse.
The vast majority of business interactions occur between humans and simulated retailers, or between a human's virtual personal assistant and a simulated retailer.
Household robots are ubiquitous and reliable.
Computers do most of the vehicle driving—-humans are in fact prohibited from driving on highways unassisted. Furthermore, when humans do take over the wheel, the onboard computer system constantly monitors their actions and takes control whenever the human drives recklessly. As a result, there are very few transportation accidents.
Most roads now have automated driving systems—networks of monitoring and communication devices that allow computer-controlled automobiles to safely navigate.
Prototype personal flying vehicles using microflaps exist. They are also primarily computer-controlled.
Humans are beginning to have deep relationships with automated personalities, which hold some advantages over human partners. The depth of some computer personalities convinces some people that they should be accorded more rights.
While a growing number of humans believe that their computers and the simulated personalities they interact with are intelligent to the point of human-level consciousness, experts dismiss the possibility that any could pass the Turing Test.
Human-robot relationships begin as simulated personalities become more convincing.
Interaction with virtual personalities becomes a primary interface
Public places and workplaces are ubiquitously monitored to prevent violence and all actions are recorded permanently. Personal privacy is a major political issue, and some people protect themselves with unbreakable computer codes.
The basic needs of the underclass are met. (Not specified if this pertains only to the developed world or to all countries)
Virtual artists—creative computers capable of making their own art and music—emerge in all fields of the arts.
A $1,000 personal computer is 1,000 times more powerful than the human brain.
The vast majority of computation is done by computers and not by human brains.
Further progress has been made in understanding the secrets of the human brain. Hundreds of distinct sub-regions with specialized functions have been identified. Some of the algorithms that code for development of these regions have been deciphered and incorporated into neural net computers.
Massively parallel neural nets, which are constructed through reverse-engineering the human brain, are in common use.
The eyeglasses and headphones that used to deliver virtual reality are now obsolete thanks to computer implants that go into the eyes and ears. The implants are either permanent or removable. They allow direct interface with computers, communications and Internet-based applications. The implants are also capable of recording what the user sees and hears.
Computer implants designed for direct connection to the brain are also available. They are capable of augmenting natural senses and of enhancing higher brain functions like memory, learning speed and overall intelligence.
Computers are now capable of learning and creating new knowledge entirely on their own and with no human help. By scanning the enormous content of the Internet, some computers "know" literally every single piece of public information (every scientific discovery, every book and movie, every public statement, etc.) generated by human beings.
Direct brain implants allow users to enter full-immersion virtual reality—with complete sensory stimulation—without any external equipment. People can have their minds in a totally different place at any moment. This technology is in widespread use.
Most communication occurs between humans and machines as opposed to human-to-human.
The manufacturing, agricultural and transportation sectors of the economy are almost entirely automated and employ very few humans. Across the world, poverty, war and disease are almost nonexistent thanks to technology alleviating want.
The rise of Artificial Intelligence creates a real "robot rights" movement, and there is open, public debate over what sorts of civil rights and legal protections machines should have. The existence of humans with heavy levels of cybernetic augmentation and of larger numbers of other people with less extreme cybernetic implants lead to further arguments over what constitutes a "human being."
Although computers routinely pass the Turing Test, controversy still persists over whether machines are as intelligent as humans in all areas.
Artificial Intelligences claim to be conscious and openly petition for recognition of the fact. Most people admit and accept this new truth.
Reverse engineering of the human brain completed
Non-biological intelligence combines the subtlety and pattern recognition strength of human intelligence, with the speed, memory, and knowledge sharing of machine intelligence
Non-biological intelligence will continue to grow exponentially whereas biological intelligence is effectively fixed
Food is commonly "assembled" by nanomachines. This food is externally indistinguishable from "natural" food, but it can be made more wholesome since production can be controlled at the molecular level. This technology decouples food production from climate conditions and the availability of natural resources.
The distinction between virtual reality and "real" reality becomes confounded as foglets come into common use, allowing immediate assembly or disassembly of all sorts of physical objects.
Picoengineering (technology on the scale of trillionths of a meter) becomes practical.
The human brain has been completely reverse engineered and all aspects of its functioning are understood.
Natural human thinking possesses no advantages over computer minds.
Machines have attained equal legal status with humans.
Humans and machines merge in the physical and mental realms. Cybernetic brain implants enable humans to fuse their minds with AI's.
In consequence, clear distinctions between humans and machines no longer exist.
Most conscious beings lack a permanent physical form.
The vast majority of the Earth's sentient beings are AI's that exist entirely as thinking computer programs capable of instantly moving from one computer to another across the Internet (or whatever equivalent exists in 2099). These computer-based beings are capable of manifesting themselves at will in the physical world by creating or taking over robotic bodies, with individual AI's also being capable of controlling multiple bodies at once.
Individual beings merge and separate constantly, making it impossible to determine how many "people" there are on Earth.
This new plasticity of consciousness and ability for beings to join minds seriously alters the nature of self-identity.
The majority of interpersonal interactions occur in virtual environments. Actually having two people physically meet in the real world to have a conversation or transact business without any technological interference is very rare.
Organic human beings are a small minority of the intelligent life forms on Earth. Even among the remaining Homo sapiens, the use of computerized implants that heavily augment normal abilities is ubiquitous and accepted as normal. The small fraction of humans who opt to remain "natural" and unmodified effectively exist on a lower and more limited plane of consciousness from everyone else, and thus find it impossible to fully interact with AI's and highly modified humans.
"Natural" humans are protected from extermination. In spite of their shortcomings and frailties, humans are respected by AI's for giving rise to the machines.
Since knowledge and skills can be instantly downloaded and comprehended by most intelligent beings, the process of learning is compressed into an instantaneous affair instead of the years-long struggle normal humans experience. Free from this time-consuming burden, AI's now focus their energies on making new discoveries and contributions.
AI's are capable of dividing their attention and energies in countless directions, allowing one being to manage a multitude of endeavors simultaneously.
Femtoengineering (engineering on the scale of one thousandth of a trillionth of a meter) might be possible.
AI's communicate via a shared electronic language.
Artwork and music created by machines encompasses areas of the light spectrum and frequencies of sounds that normal humans cannot perceive.
Money has deflated in value, meaning all sorts of goods and services have become cheaper.
Some humans at least as old as the Baby Boomers are still alive and well.
Computer viruses are a major threat since most intelligent beings are software-based.
AI's frequently make "backup copies" of themselves, guaranteeing a sort of immortality should the original AI be killed.
The concept of "life expectancy" has become irrelevant to humans and machines thanks to medical immortality and advanced computers.
The pace of technological change continues to accelerate as the 22nd century nears.
Thousands of years from now[edit]
"Intelligent beings consider the fate of the Universe." Presumably, this means that the AI's created by humans will have the ability to control the entire Universe, perhaps keeping it from dying.
The Singularity is Near (2005)[edit]
Supercomputers will have the same raw computing power as human brains, though the software to emulate human thinking on those computers does not yet exist. (IBM Sequoia)
Computers will start to disappear as distinct physical objects, meaning many will have nontraditional shapes or will be embedded in clothing and everyday objects.
Full-immersion audio-visual virtual reality will exist.
2010s[edit]
The decade in which "Bridge Two", the revolution in Genetics/Biotechnology, is to reach its peak. During the 2020s, humans will have the means of changing their genes; not just "designer babies" will be feasible, but designer baby boomers through the rejuvenation of all of one's body's tissues and organs by transforming one's skin cells into youthful versions of every other cell type. People will be able to "reprogram" their own biochemistry away from disease and aging, radically extending life expectancy.
Computers become smaller and increasingly integrated into everyday life.
More and more computer devices will be used as miniature web servers, and more will have their resources pooled for computation.
High-quality broadband Internet access will become available almost everywhere.
Eyeglasses that beam images onto the users' retinas to produce virtual reality will be developed. They will also come with speakers or headphone attachments that will complete the experience with sounds. These eyeglasses will become a new medium for advertising as advertising will be wirelessly transmitted to them as one walks by various business establishments. This was fictionalized in Dennō Coil.
The VR glasses will also have built-in computers featuring "virtual assistant" programs that can help the user with various daily tasks.
Virtual assistants would be capable of multiple functions. One useful function would be real-time language translation in which words spoken in a foreign language would be translated into text that would appear as subtitles to a user wearing the glasses.
Cell phones will be built into clothing and will be able to project sounds directly into the ears of their users.
Advertisements will utilize a new technology whereby two ultrasonic beams can be targeted to intersect at a specific point, delivering a localized sound message that only a single person can hear. This was fictionalized in the films Minority Report and Back to the Future Part II.
By now, it is likely that "clean a house" will be within the capabilities of a household robot.
10^13 bits (=10 TB) of computer memory—roughly the equivalent of the memory space in a single human brain—will cost $1000.
The decade in which "Bridge Three", the revolution in Nanotechnology, is to begin: allowing humans to vastly overcome the inherent limitations of biology, as no matter how much humanity fine-tunes their biology, they will never be as capable otherwise. This decade also marks the revolution in Robotics (Strong AI), as an AI is expected to pass the Turing test by the last year of the decade (2029), meaning it can pass for a human being (though the first A.I. is likely to be the equivalent of an average, educated human). What follows then will be an era of consolidation in which nonbiological intelligence will undergo exponential growth (Runaway AI), eventually leading to the extraordinary expansion contemplated by the Singularity, in which human intelligence is multiplied by billions by the mid-2040s.
Early in this decade, humanity will have the requisite hardware to emulate human intelligence within a $1000 personal computer, followed shortly by effective software models of human intelligence toward the middle of the decade: this will be enabled through the continuing exponential growth of brain-scanning technology, which is doubling in bandwidth, temporal and spatial resolution every year, and will be greatly amplified with nanotechnology, allowing us to have a detailed understanding of all the regions of the human brain and to aid in developing human-level machine intelligence by the end of this decade.
Computers less than 100 nm in size will be possible.
As one of their first practical applications, nanomachines are used for medical purposes.
Highly advanced medical nanobots will perform detailed brainscans on live patients.
Accurate computer simulations of the entire human brain will exist due to these hyperaccurate brainscans, and the workings of the brain will be understood.
Nanobots capable of entering the bloodstream to "feed" cells and extract waste will exist (though not necessarily be in wide use) by the end of this decade. They will make the normal mode of human food consumption obsolete.
By the late 2020s, nanotech-based manufacturing will be in widespread use, radically altering the economy as all sorts of products can suddenly be produced for a fraction of their traditional-manufacture costs. The true cost of any product is now the amount it takes to download the design schematics.
By the later part of this decade, virtual reality will be so high-quality that it will be indistinguishable from real reality.
The threat posed by genetically engineered pathogens permanently dissipates by the end of this decade as medical nanobots—infinitely more durable, intelligent and capable than any microorganism—become sufficiently advanced.
The many variations of "Human Body 2.0" (as Kurzweil calls it) are incrementally accumulated into this and the following decade, with each organ and body system having its own course of refinement and development. It ultimately consists of a nanotechnological system of nourishment and circulation, obsolescing many internal organs, brain-extension and an improved skeleton.
10^16 calculations per second—roughly the equivalent of one human brain—will cost $1,000.
The most likely year for the debut of advanced nanotechnology.
Some military UAVs and land vehicles will be 100% computer-controlled.
Mind uploading becomes successful and perfected by the end of this decade as humans become software-based: living out on the Web, projecting bodies whenever they want or need (whether in virtual or real reality), and living indefinitely so long as they maintain their "mind file". Eventually, all human beings (including those with transbiological 2.0 or 3.0 bodies) will migrate to this postbiological state except for those who wish to remain unenhanced: the transbiological era giving way to the postbiological era.
Nanomachines could be directly inserted into the brain and could interact with brain cells to totally control incoming and outgoing signals. As a result, truly full-immersion virtual reality could be generated without the need for any external equipment. Afferent nerve pathways could be blocked, totally canceling out the "real" world and leaving the user with only the desired virtual experience.
Brain nanobots could also elicit emotional responses from users.
Using brain nanobots, recorded or real-time brain transmissions of a person's daily life known as "experience beamers" will be available for other people to remotely experience. This is very similar to how the characters in Being John Malkovich were able to enter the mind of Malkovich and see the world through his eyes.
Recreational uses aside, nanomachines in peoples' brains will allow them to greatly expand their cognitive, memory and sensory capabilities, to directly interface with computers, and to "telepathically" communicate with other, similarly augmented humans via wireless networks.
The same nanotechnology should also allow people to alter the neural connections within their brains, changing the underlying basis for the person's intelligence, memories and personality.
The many variations of "Human Body 3.0" are gradually implemented during this and the following decade; It mostly likely lacks a fixed, corporeal form and can alter its shape and external appearance at will via foglet-like nanotechnology.
People spend most of their time in full-immersion virtual reality (Kurzweil has cited The Matrix as a good example of what the advanced virtual worlds will be like, without the dystopian twist).
Foglets are in use.
Nonbiological intelligence will be billions of times more capable than biological intelligence.
2045: The Singularity[edit]
$1000 buys a computer a billion times more intelligent than every human combined. This means that average and even low-end computers are vastly smarter than even highly intelligent, unenhanced humans.
The technological singularity occurs as artificial intelligences surpass human beings as the smartest and most capable life forms on the Earth. Technological development is taken over by the machines, who can think, act and communicate so quickly that normal humans cannot even comprehend what is going on. The machines enter into a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, with each new generation of A.I.s appearing faster and faster. From this point onwards, technological advancement is explosive, under the control of the machines, and thus cannot be accurately predicted (hence the term "Singularity").
The Singularity is an extremely disruptive, world-altering event that forever changes the course of human history. The extermination of humanity by violent machines is unlikely (though not impossible) because sharp distinctions between man and machine will no longer exist thanks to the existence of cybernetically enhanced humans and uploaded humans.
Post-2045: "Waking up" the Universe[edit]
The physical bottom limit to how small computer transistors (or other equivalent, albeit more effective components, such as memristors integrated into Crossbar latches) can be shrunk is reached. From this moment onwards, computers can only be made more powerful if they are made larger in size.
Because of this, A.I.s convert more and more of the Earth's matter into engineered, computational substrate capable of supporting more A.I.s. until the whole Earth is one, gigantic computer, except for a few nature reserves set aside on the planetary surface for those humans who decided to remain in their natural state. "MOSH's" (Mostly Original Substrate Human) who choose to remain purely organic would still possess virtual assistants that will act as their transcendent servants, living in the blurred real world ("foglet-reality") and being provided with environments and everything they could possibly need as they live out the rest of their normal lives unless they enhance themselves.
At this point, the only possible way to increase the intelligence of the machines any farther is to begin converting all of the matter and energy in the universe into similar massive computers. A.I.s radiate outward from Earth, first into the Solar System and then out into interstellar space, then galaxies in all directions, utilizing starships that are Von Neumann probes with nanobot crews, breaking down whole planets, stars, moons, and meteoroids and reassembling them into computers. This, in effect, "wakes up" the universe as all the inanimate "dumb" matter (rocks, dust, gases, etc.) is converted into structured matter capable of supporting life (albeit synthetic life).
Kurzweil predicts that machines might have the ability to make planet-sized computers by 2099, which underscores how enormously technology will advance after the Singularity. Venus Solletta is a planet sized computer, its radius is 39,000 km.
The process of "waking up" the universe could be completed well before the end of the 22nd century, provided humans are not limited by the speed of light.
With the entire universe made into a giant, highly efficient supercomputer, AI and human hybrids (so integrated that, in truth it is a new category of "life") would have both supreme intelligence and physical control over the universe. Humanity will still not possess infinite levels of any attributes, as the accelerating change of evolution never reaches an infinite measure (though it moves rapidly in that direction), becoming, as Kurzweil writes, "moving inexorably toward this monotheistic conception of God, though never reaching this ideal"; even with theories such as the holographic universe. The final chapter however notes that, if possible, the ability to create and colonize other universes (and if there is a way to do this, humanity's vast intelligence is likely to harness it, as with surpassing/bypassing the speed of light) could allow the intelligence of the human/machine civilization to extend indefinitely, akin to a mathematical singularity. If not, then saturating humanity's own universe will remain their ultimate fate.
Some indeterminate points within a few decades from now[edit]
Space technology becomes advanced enough to provide the Earth permanent protection from the threat of asteroid impacts.
The antitechnology Luddite movement will grow increasingly vocal and possibly resort to violence as these people become enraged over the emergence of new technologies that threaten traditional attitudes regarding the nature of human life (radical life extension, genetic engineering, cybernetics) and the supremacy of mankind (artificial intelligence). Though the Luddites might, at best, succeed in delaying the Singularity, the march of technology is irresistible and they will inevitably fail in keeping the world frozen at a fixed level of development.
The emergence of distributed energy grids and full-immersion virtual reality will, when combined with high bandwidth Internet, enable the ultimate in telecommuting. This, in turn, will make cities obsolete since workers will no longer need to be located near their workplaces. The decentralization of the population will make societies less vulnerable to terrorist and military attacks.
Last edited by Tom Kalbfus (2013-11-06 07:06:39)
...Your point...? Quoting someone's predictions prove absolutely nothing, other than that the person believes these things will happen. But other people believe these things won't happen, and those people are at least as qualified to make such predictions.
Hardware =/= software. You can have the entire universe for your computer, but unless you actually know what algorithms to implement, you're getting nowhere.
Wow! The air is mighty thin where this high-flying conversation has gone. Allow me to bring it down nearer the surface for a moment.
I'd rather there be a trained human pilot in any airliner I ride, a pilot with the authority to override all automatic systems and take full manual control of the airplane. The pilot's inability to override the computer in Airbus machines has already caused more than one fatal crash. That's why I don't like riding Airbus products.
On the other hand, the pilots taking manual control need both training and experience at hand-flying airplanes, as the recent Asiana crash at SFO so clearly demonstrated. Same for the Colgin Air crash some years ago. And many others.
I do not want aircraft (or cars, or trains, or ships, or anything else) operated solely by computers. They can only do what they are programmed for, unlike people. I have seen nothing to suggest that will change even in our childrens's or grandchildren's times, notwithstanding some of the stunts done with supercomputers in recent years. Winning chess games is one hell of a long way from self-awareness and spontaneous creativity.
Computers as we know them are like any other tool, they exist to amplify and augment human abilities, not replace them. Robot manufacturing does require human supervision and intervention, even today. I see great dangers for any society that would ignore those facts of life.
Not until the technology advances to the point where machine self-awareness and creativity can be verified (something we do not yet really know how to verify!!!), should we allow any total job replacement. Maybe we no longer need to weld the parts on the assembly line, but we still need to supervise, program, intervene, and repair the machines that do it for us. Those are the proper roles for humans and machines.
Can you prove that there is a physical process in the Universe that cannot be modeled by a computer doing math? Computer models predict the weather after all. Do you say there is something supernatural in the way the human brain operates? Is there a soul? Are souls required in order for the human brain to work? The human brain is a collection of atoms weighing about 3 pounds on average that follows natural laws that can be modeled on a computer, therefore the human brain + body can also be modeled on a computer. Most scientists would agree with this, unless you are a man of religious persuasion, who believes that there are something that science can't explain and that humans require a soul to be conscious. You can't have it both ways you know, either science explains everything or it doesn't, in which case we need God's permission to build a self-aware robot.
Terraformer wrote:
AI's don't need to be programmed, they are designed to learn naturally. What you do is program a computer to model the human brain at a certain level of abstraction, you replicate all the things human brain cells do when connected to other human brain cells, then you replicate all the tissues surrounding the human brain, those tissues respond to the signals from the simulated human brain, then you place the computer doing this simulation in a robot that is shaped like a human being, and you program the robot to move a body part in response to the simulation moving a simulated body part, then you feed the sensory date from cameras, air samplers, chemical analizers, microphones, and tactile sensors back into the simulation so it experiences what the robot experiences, and you have a self-aware robot!
Here's an article from someone who actually works in figuring out how the brain works - http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/10/19/gho … ve-matrix/. In computers, hardware =/= software. In humans, hardware == software.
To recreate a brain/mind in silico, whether a cyborg body or a computer frame, is equally problematic. Large portions of the brain process and interpret signals from the body and the environment. Without a body, these functions will flail around and can result in the brain… well, losing its mind. Without corrective "pingbacks" from the environment that are filtered by the body, the brain can easily misjudge to the point of hallucination, as seen in phenomena like phantom limb pain or fibromyalgia. Additionally, processing at light speed will probably result in madness, as everything will appear to happen simultaneously or will change order arbitrarily.
Finally, without context we may lose the ability for empathy, as is shown in Bacigalupi's disturbing story People of Sand and Slag. Empathy is as instrumental to high-order intelligence as it is to survival: without it, we are at best idiot savants, at worst psychotic killers. Of course, someone can argue that the entire universe can be recreated in VR. At that point, we're in god territory… except that even if some of us manage to live the perfect Second Life, there's still the danger of someone unplugging the computer or deleting the noomorphs. So there go the Star Trek transporters, there go the Battlestar Galactica Cylon resurrection tanks.
You don't actually have to recreate an entire Universe in silico, only a room with a baby in it, this room is a virtual nursery, a caretaker would don a body suit, and with each movement of the bodysuit, and avatar in the simulation would move, the care taker would be able to pick up the baby, feed it comfort it, in the room is a series of virtual appliances, the foster parent in the body suit can walk up to a cabinet, press a button with her avatar's finger and open the door and food will be found inside on dishes with appropriate cutlery, she feeds the baby, later on as the baby grows, it learns to feed itself. The foster parent teaches the baby to talk same as we teach a real child. At the toddler stage the child learns to walk within the simulated room, the child can watch television on a virtual television set, it plays in the virtual room.
Later on the virtual room becomes a classroom, other real children put on body suits and manipulate their own avatars and sit in a classroom with the virtual child in a class taught by a teacher in a body suit. The virtual child makes friends with real children, they play games and grow up. The virtual child along with classmates graduates from Elementary School, Middle School, and high school, and finally goes to college in the virtual classroom, attends a graduation ceremony in that virtual room. receives a virtual diploma, and then is ready to enter the job market. The virtual person is then copied to fill how ever many job openings their are in that particular field. The child can be copied after high school and each copy can pursue a different college degree and fill a different job opening, these are all human equivalent AIs, they can be improved and made smarter than a human being.
So you accept that they wouldn't be sapient?
Call me ignostic but I don't think you can define sapience either
Okay, conscious. Which everyone, except the philosophical zombie which posted above me, will understand. Self-awareness. Whatever.
I don't pretend to know what it is, all I know is I got it. I think since I am part of this Universe and I obey its natural laws, what I've got can be replicated in a machine.
Can you define it in such a way as we'll never be able to design a computer (be it carbon or silicon based) that doesn't run afoul of it?
The existence of an I. I can't define it any better than that, but it's kind of given that everyone knows what consciousness is, given that humans possess it. Or solipsism is correct.
Maybe we can't replicate the "I" in a machine, you know how this could be? Maybe all of us are already in a simulation and we don't know it, there are AI programs in charge of our minds, though in the simulation all our thinking appears to come from the brain, and if we study this brain closely, there are safeguards that prevent us from reproducing whatever goes on in a human brain no matter what we do, in this simulation, we will never produce an AI that bests us and we'll always need human labor. It would be nice if someone could expand the simulation so we have other worlds to explore besides this one, maybe a "magic door" we can step through that would give us an whole new "Earth" to explore, now that would be convenient, save us a lot of trouble in building spaceships and terraforming other planets, as they are all not real in anycase and neither are we, so it doesn't really matter.
Under what circumstances does an "I" exist? Chatterbots have been using the pronoun to describe themselves since the 60s. Many of these have passed the Turing test. Who's to say they're not conscious?
Most humans are conscious for most of their lives. But it's not enough to say that, because when you start talking about AI there is no clear like between conscious and non-conscious. I note that you prefer the term Artificial General Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence. What's General Intelligence? Do humans have it?
We have so many sociocultural biases that it's hard to even talk about consciousness, but a good starting point is admitting that we're made of matter and therefore fundamentally replicable.
I don't see why we wouldn't be able to simulate AI in a computer, even if we're already running on one as long as the laws of physics remain constant.


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Tag Archives: scott & bailey
Where Are All The Heroines On TV?
I've been enjoying Atlantis with my kids and both my son and daughter love it. They like the humour, the emotional drama, the action and the adventure. But I was sitting there wondering, what sort of message does this send my daughter? The female characters are either passive love interest or evil. Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against an all male lead cast. It's great to see male friendships on screen and the stories are fantastic. But when it replaces Merlin (also centred around two male characters) and is followed immediately by a trailer for The Musketeers (need I say more?), it does make you wonder, where the heck is the new Buffy? Have I really got to go back ten years (before my daughter was even born) to find an action heroine on my tv screen?
I know, you're going to tell me that there are plenty of all-female shows. Call the Midwife is a brilliant show and I'm as big a fan as anyone else, but when it comes to genres other than drama (action, adventure, fantasy, science-fiction, thriller) the women are almost absent. Valuing caring is hugely important; it's a trait massively undervalued in our society, but that's for another time. But not every girl wants to be a nurse. Where are the role models on screen, those lead characters, driving a show, that offer something different?
I appreciate that the genres I'm talking about only account for a small percentage of our tv drama output. So maybe female protagonists fare better in the genre that dominates our original drama; crime. Whether it's gentle puzzle-solving or dark thrillers, our appetite for crime drama is huge. But even here, where there is no earthly reason for there not to be a 50/50 split of shows with a female lead and shows with a male lead, the men outnumber the woman 2:1. Here are the original crime dramas from the main UK broadcasters in 2013:
Male led crime dramas: Sherlock, Ripper Street, Luther, Death in Paradise, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Poirot, Endeavour, Lewis, Shetland, Whitechapel, Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, Jonathan Creek, By Any Means, Murder on the Homefront.
Female led crime dramas: Vera, Scott & Bailey, Marple, Silent Witness, Field of Blood , The Guilty
I've not included the brilliant Broadchurch because I honestly felt that the lead was split between the two detectives; one male, one female.
So where's it all going wrong? Are female-led shows being developed but just not getting the green light? It's possible, though in my experience producers aren't being offered those shows. Whether I'm part of an in-house development team getting scripts from the most experienced writers, or through Script Angel reading spec scripts from the next generation of screenwriters, the vast majority of scripts I see conform to the stereotype – the dramas (emotional) are dominated by female characters and the genre shows are dominated by male characters.
So what's the answer? Maybe producers need to get more pro-active; seeking out or specifically asking for shows that challenge that. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to you guys, the screenwriters. We need to change the diet on offer to producers and commissioners to force them to redress the balance.
The under-representation of woman in genre television isn't of course the only problem. Our representations of minority groups (sexual orientation, religion, colour) are woeful. It's often argued that audiences prefer to see white heterosexual male leads but that, quite frankly, is bs. As Scott & Bailey has proved for female lead characters, Luther proves that a black lead doesn't cause the world to end or even audiences to switch off in horror. If you encounter that argument – ignore it! Audiences predominantly watch white male leads because THAT'S ALL THEY'RE BEING OFFERED.
Since woman make up half the population, why on earth are they not also the lead in half the genre shows on television? Whenever questions of under-representation arise, one of the suggested solutions is to write 'blind'. By that I mean, create a rounded character that is defined by their personality and then decide their gender, ethnic background and sexual orientation. Whatever the means by which screenwriters create their original shows, my plea is for more female characters in genre shows now.
Posted in Craft, Screenwriting, Television Drama
Tagged Atlantis, Buffy, characters, drama, female, gender, inequality, male, Merlin, minorities, scott & bailey, Screenwriting, television, The Musketeers, under-representation
Calling the shots on more than just Call The Midwife
An all-female directing line-up shouldn't make headlines.
As it enters production on series three, Call The Midwife has been making headlines, both here and in the US. The reason?
Every director on the series will be a woman. Although this is said to be by happy accident rather than design, helped in no small part by the intimately female subject matter, it does raise the question: why is this so unusual?
It's not without precedent – the third series of Scott and Bailey beat Midwife to it – but it's far too early to say the tide has turned. As I look across the current drama landscape, it's clear that these two shows are indeed news-worthy because all-male directing line-ups are still the norm.
I knew back in 2009 that the television directing landscape was male-dominated. Working on Blue Murder for ITV Studios, I did a huge trawl of directing talent working in the industry. Of the 140 names I had, only 16 were women, a paltry 11%.
I'd assumed that since then things had improved. But recent research by Directors UK found that the number of women directors in UK drama has dropped significantly in the past five years. In the US, the Directors Guild of America revealed that in 2011/12, only 15% of scripted television episodes were directed by women.
Recent big dramas such as Broadchurch, Ripper Street, Death In Paradise, Luther, DCI Banks, Prisoners' Wives and Mr Selfridge clocked up 112 hours between them, hiring 29 directors. All were men. The continuing drama series don't fare much better: women make up 18% of the directors on Holby City, 17% on Casualty and 13% on Waterloo Road.
Organisations like Women in Film & Television do much to give the issue profile but we need more research if we're to start tackling this dearth. Thankfully, there is progress here. Directors UK formed the Women's Working Group, chaired by Beryl Richards, which has been able to mine broadcasters' annual residuals data to track the gender split. Kate Harwood, BBC's head of drama production, England, has shown her support.
While active encouragement into the industry is to be applauded, is there a lack of women pursuing directing as a career? Or are we just not hiring those that are emerging?
The evidence from the UK's film industry, where female directing talent is similarly underrepresented, suggests that women are setting off on the path to a directing career.
Briony Hanson, director of film at the British Council, notes that at film schools and among short filmmakers, there are as many women as men. Then suddenly they disappear.
It's the men who go on to make their first feature film and break into television drama directing, becoming the next generation of film and television directors.
The BBC is undertaking a study of hiring practices in BBC drama to determine why it seems so difficult to get a drama directing job if you're a woman. It'll be interesting to see what issues the research reveals. Hopefully, we can then take steps to help those talented female directors not just to break into the industry but to sustain successful careers as directors.
Article written for and first published in Broadcast 20 June 2013
Posted in Television Drama
Tagged Beryl Richards, Briony Hanson, British Council, call the midwife, directors, Directors UK, female directors, feminism, Kate Harwood, neal street productions, Nicolas Schindler, Pippa Harris, red productions, scott & bailey, WFTV, women directors

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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USALA Media
USALA Team
In The Thick (ENG)
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Political Encounters (ENG)
with Edwin Mayorga
Edwin Mayorga
Tagged as: Politics
Presented by Swarthmore College
Political encounters explore the socio-economic make-up of urban neighborhoods – addressing the ever-present disparity between Urban America and Suburban America, in terms of, economic conditions, political structure, limited access to education and employment, insufficient finances, poor social protection, Insufficient access to health care services, and high exposure to environmental risks.
Edwin Mayorga is Nicaraguan-Chinese immigrant raised in Southern California. He's an Assistant Professor-in the Department of Educational Studies and the Program in Latin American and Latino Studies at Swarthmore college. His engaged scholarship is primarily an application of cultural political economic perspectives to questions concerning urbanism, urban educational policy, Latinx education, ethnic studies, digital social science, and teaching for social justice.
Edwin is the founder and co-researcher of the Education in our Barrios Project in Philadelphia and New York City, a college and high school-aged, participatory action research collaborative. Currently the research collaborative is designing a Youth Voices (Voices) survey of Latinx youth in Philadelphia with the hope of providing research and analyses that can be used to advocate for more just social conditions for Latinx communities. The project has also lead to the creation of #EthnicStudiesPHL, a curricular database and educator group that advocates for ethnic studies in K-12 and higher education settings. The other major project is the Philadelphia Community, School and College Partnership (CSCP) study examining various approaches and visions of community and school partnerships in the Philadelphia school district.
Edwin also initiated the Critical Education Policy Studies (#CritEdPol) group, a space geared toward encouraging critical policy studies approach. Recently the first issue of #CritEdPol was published, an open source, online, journal of critical education policy studies for undergraduates and education advocates. He is co-editor (w/Bree Picower) of the volume What's Race got to do with it? How Current School Reform Policy Maintains Racial and Economic Inequality from Peter Lang.
As a doctoral student his teaching experiences included being a part-time faculty member at Hunter College, CUNY's Macaulay Honors College (Lehman College) and a Writing Fellow at Hostos Community College. Edwin has an M.A., from Colombia University and a PhD., from Graduate Center, City University of New York.
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1. What are the applicable scenarios for the binocular camera?
Ideal for total solutions to stereo vision technology, including navigation, obstacle avoidance, mapping, ranging, etc.
2. Is there an open source project case?
We support multiple open source SLAM projects such as VINS, OKVIS, ORB_SLAM2, VIORB, etc.
3. What are the platforms supported by SDK?
The system supported by the SDK is Ununtu16.04/14.04, Windows 10; the supported hardware platforms include PC, TX1/TX2 and other ARM architecture platforms.
4. What is the main function of the SDK? Is it completely open source?
The main function of the SDK is to transmit and separate binocular images, transmit imu data, calculate disparity images, depth images, and provide ROS Wrapper; the SDK itself is completely open source, but MYNTAI also provides some auxiliary plug-ins (such as CUDA computation depth), these plug-ins are not open source.
5. Does the binocular camera support obtaining RGB/color images?
The S series only provides black and white images, and the D series provides 720P/480P color images and depth images.
7. Is the binocular camera synchronized with the imu hardware?
It is hardware synchronization and relies on a time system with microsecond accuracy.
8. Will the binocular camera be calibrated before leaving the factory?
A separate image parameter calibration is performed for each binocular before leaving the factory.
9. What is the distance accuracy of the depth map?
The accuracy of 0.7m-3m can reach 95%, and the accuracy of 3m-5m can reach 99%.
10. Does the binocular camera provide other accessories such as a case?
This series of binocular cameras has a case; in addition, the binoculars are equipped with an IR light active emitter, which is mainly used to add texture features to planes without obvious texture features (such as white wall surface), which is beneficial for depth calculation.


NSF Int'l. has appointed Tom Chestnut as v.p. of its Global Food Safety and Quality Division. Chestnut has more than 25 years of experience in food safety. He most recently served as NSF's v.p.- Supply Chain Food Safety, helping companies throughout the global supply chain strengthen their quality assurance and food-safety programs through auditing, testing and certification to global food-safety standards. Prior to joining NSF, Chestnut spent 20 years with Darden as v.p.-Total Quality and int'l. director of Product Safety and Quality; he led the implementation of food-safety protocols with suppliers throughout Asia, Mexico and Latin America.
Aladdin Temp-Rite Appoints New Sales & Marketing V.P.


Where do you start when you wish to put your house on the market?
picture themselves in the home. The more you cleanse the palette, the easier the buyer can achieve this. Less is definitely more when it comes to preparing your home to sell.
Do NOT lie to your real estate agent. Tell the truth about the flaws of your home, the truth will likely come out in inspections anyway, so simply state it upfront and build trust with your potential buyer. Reasonable people understand that there is no such thing as the perfect home.
Think about where to best spend any money on repairs and upgrades. It may not be worth it to put that brand new kitchen in because the new buyer may hate the dark granite counter tops you chose - they may have plans for white marble. However, simple fixes (fix that toilet that is always running) and refreshing touches (paint, paint and more paint) will give your home an overall feeling of cleanliness, and that will more likely translate to a higher selling price.
Listen to the feedback of the buyers that have toured your home; try to remain objective and consider what the buyer sees, and make necessary changes.
shopping around looking at other homes. Buyers use the internet to research and can see what homes in your neighborhood sold for. If you decide to try selling at an inflated price point, you may luck out but more likely, you will not get the traffic you hoped for, and your listing will sit on the market and be seen as "old, and that there must be something wrong with it". You will end up with a steeper price reduction than if you had simply priced it at market value in the first place.


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Tag: poultry
Investigation into 1000 UK mega-farms
By 2021, there will be 1,099 farms in the UK meeting the US definition of a CAFO or mega farm.
Poultry & Meat Seafood
Why countries should stop food protectionism according to Brazil.
With estimates indicating over two billion children would be born by 2030, experts at an ongoing poultry and pork show in Sao Paulo, Brazil, said making food available and taming…
Will further consolidation lead to higher poultry prices?
The market is in turmoil after long delays in the Justice Department's approval of Cargill and Continental Grain's $4.5 billion acquisition of publicly traded Sanderson Farms.
South African poultry calls to re-new anti dumping duties
South Africa's International Trade Control Board (ITAC) is considering imposing five-year anti-dumping tariffs on these countries, but provisional anti-dumping tariffs are from December to June 14, 2021.
Chicken & meat prices hit record highs
Chicken & meat prices hit record highs FAO Meat Price Index reveals chicken meat reached its highest price in June this year since the beginning of this series in 1990.…
Italian poultry industry collapsing & state of emergency
Italian poultry industry collapsing & state of emergency According to Reuters, the Italian government has declared a state of emergency in the areas most affected by the drought and quoted…
South African poultry farmers hit hard by energy crisis
South Africa's poultry industry has been hit hard by Escom's recent power outages in different parts of the country.
US Meat and Poultry Special Investigators Act Update
The Meat and Poultry Special Investigators Act will establish a new department within the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to monitor competition, and the Act on Price Discovery and Transparency of…
Brazil poultry exports up even with China down 3%.
Brazil poultry exports from Brazil appear to be set at record paces in 2022, despite reduced shipments to two major markets.
Poultry News: How Ukraine could double exports to EU & curb inflation
Ukraine could double its poultry exports to Europe by benefiting from a one-year tax exemption system.


Our Fast, Effortless, Fresh column is all about creating weeknight meals a small easier, without providing up any of the huge, bold flavors that make cooking and consuming so fun. Targets: three.50 general restaurant rating, win the Italian cooking contest, $25,000 monthly profit for Le Palourde. This recipe is the best light summertime pasta" dish with a vibrant and zesty zoodle base. Draw the family members in with the scrumptious sights, scents and tastes of Basic Truth® and Straightforward Truth Organic® dinner recipes. Fortunately, healthful cooking does not have to be time-consuming or challenging. The team cooking the appetizer course should open that basket of mystery ingredients. Not only is this tiny turkey a good decoration, it can also hold candies or nuts as a celebration favor.
The very first time we took it on a trip, we stayed at a good hotel exactly where you had to enter through the lobby, and I carried the skillet in with component of it sticking up out of a bag and right after we got into the space I expected Safety to come knocking on the door and say, 'Ma'am, no cooking in the space!' Given that I kept the box it came in, I now pop it in the box and put it inside a piece of luggage (a huge piece of luggage). These fantastic soups and side dishes go with every little thing from sophisticated holiday meals to a weeknight pot roast.
My diet plan after surgery was similar to other folks: apple juice, jello, chicken broth, orange sorbet and coffee. We love this recipe due to the fact it's straightforward to pull together and serves up a host of antioxidants and a source of total protein Not to mention, it really is totally Instagram-worthy. And drizzle the vegetables with EVOO, salt, and pepper. Cook till rib roast reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees F. How significantly fun this would be. I have not done this yet…the operative word right here is 'yet.' I have provided themed dinners a lot of instances where the guests help prepare the meal which is fun for all.
Not counting salt and pepper, there are only three ingredients in this dish. Brush the fish lightly with olive oil and season with freshly ground pepper and other dried herbs. Seriously I eat venison and wild game and wonder if this diet is very good considering that it doesn't contain fat. Thank you for this book and your inspiration (had to share a pic of my book on my recipe stand in the kitchen). Regardless of whether you prepare it in advance or make it fresh for dinner, the recipe is fairly straightforward and yields delicious results.
When I serve it I will lay down some arugula, add some avocado, lay the mango salsa over prime the avocado, spot the scallops on leading and then drizzle the dressing more than top. Provided that you establish how to cook liver properly and do not eat it as well typically, it can represent a quite good part of a wholesome, balanced diet program. Another intriguing notion for an Easter appetizer is this version of a Caprese salad from My Recipes The mozzarella slices are just sandwiched between grape tomato halves and presented on skewers, which give the appetizers quite fancy appear.


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Going Deep on 'Fiat 500' Twitter
How one of Britain's biggest Twitter subcultures became a hotbed of social issues.
by Lauren O'Neill
August 16, 2018, 11:26am
Fiat 500 image via Pixabay / All tweet screenshots via @Fiat500Tw1tt3r
"Hangover's gonna kill me wish I had a tango ice blast machine in my flattt"
"Yess mum's paying for Chinese tonight"
"Fucking hate boys can't wait til Ibiza with my girls xx"
Maybe you know someone who posts tweets like these ones I just made up. If you don't, they probably at least put you in mind of someone like this: she's in her late teens or early twenties, and gets her mum or flatmates to take photos of her in the kitchen before she goes on a night out. In these photos, she is always wearing a bodycon pencil skirt, and her fake tan glistens, resplendent, against the off-white of the fridge. Her favourite food is sweet and sour chicken from her local Chinese takeaway, her favourite drink is Tango Ice Blast and her favourite activity is slagging off boys on the Internet. She loves Love Island; she shops online at Missguided and Boohoo. She's Fiat 500 Twitter.
Since late last year, people have used this term – named after the three-door city car, frequently marketed at young women in the UK and Ireland – as online shorthand for young women who use Twitter to talk about topics that seem average, like boys, reality TV and hangovers, but whose observations go viral anyway. It has spawned a parody Twitter account and has a male equivalent known as "Dark Fruits Twitter" (in reference to Strongbow's Dark Fruits cider, a drink that might as well sponsor The Courteeners and didnt_happen.jpg). Its Urban Dictionary entry characterises its participants as "British white girls on Twitter that post about hangovers, boys, food, Tango Ice Blasts, and generic life advice that for some reason gets thousands of retweets, usually adding an 'x' on the end for some sort of comedic value that is lost on the rest of the population/world."
For a while, "Fiat 500 Twitter" was an online joke that some of the women who it actually applied to weren't in on. But since its inception, it's gradually become better known, its visibility peaking during the now dearly departed fourth series of Love Island, when it trended on Twitter. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, members of Fiat 500 Twitter started to see themselves referred to as part of a stereotyped group, and while that's been a steep learning curve for some, who take offence at the label, other Fiat 500 women are happy to bear it.
Anna, 20, studies physiotherapy in Dublin, while working in a restaurant part-time. She's into going to the gym and having nights out with her mates. When I ask what else she gets up to as we chat over Twitter DMs, she jokes, "Does makeup/shopping count as a hobby?" Anna sees herself as very much part of Fiat 500 Twitter, telling me, "My tweets are all just complaining about my life, my love life, going out and Love Island." She describes the Fiat 500 demographic as "girls who only really tweet about boys, nights out and being drunk, Love Island or the Kardashians, and other very basic girl tweets". She doesn't really mind if people apply the term to her, because she knows she's a "perfect example" of someone with the typical Fiat 500 traits.
Gabbie, 18, from Leeds, feels similarly. She tells me about her early experiences of the label: "I first heard it about a year ago when my tweets first started getting popular – people were commenting on my tweets calling me 'Fiat 500 Twitter'." The tweets attracting those most responses, she says, were "usually about Chinese [food], Tango Ice Blasts, nice cocktails, being girls' girls and talking about how boys are dickheads". Like Anna, she's OK with being labelled a part of Fiat 500 Twitter, reasoning that "Fiat 500 girls are into things that everyone enjoys, they're just vocal about it on Twitter so get penalised."
Viral Fiat 500-like tweets can tend to attract negativity, like rude or dismissive replies. One line of thinking might put this down to a general devaluation of feminine interests and pursuits. Gabbie, however, doesn't think being called "Fiat 500 Twitter" is as complicated as that, explaining to me that, often, it's as simple as playground banter, with guys using the phrase against girls for online clout, or even to flirt: "People try to say it in a derogatory way to me, but most of the time the tweets aren't even that generic and it's just boys begging for likes on girls' Twitter comments, so I'm not that bothered," she says.
Recently, however, the topic has become a more complex one, in tandem with the huge success of Love Island.
In lots of ways, Love Island is the Fiat 500 motherlode, full of newly-minted reality celebrities snogging each other in Spain, and is to Fiat 500 Twitter what the World Cup is to Football Twitter. As Fiat 500 tweeters discussed the programme, referring to winners Jack and Dani as "goals" approximately seven times a second, other people scrolling through the #LoveIsland hashtag picked up on some trends.
Over the course of the show, some women who fit the Fiat 500 profile developed a negative fixation on the show's only non-white couple, Josh and Kaz, who were incessantly branded "smug", despite being sweet and inoffensive. Similarly, you could search Twitter for "Love Island Samira" and see that comments like "can't put my finger on why, but I just don't like her" abound, as a number of Fiat 500 tweeters described their "vague" dislike of the show's only black female contestant. This jarred with other Twitter users, who soon began to view Fiat 500 Twitter in general as emblematic of a particular type of veiled racism and small-mindedness in the UK.
As the anonymous mind behind the Fiat 500 Twitter parody account – a kind of real-time historian of the demographic, who bases their tweets on submissions from real life Fiat 500 Twitter – tells me: "A lot of what I saw when searching 'Fiat 500 Twitter' during peak Love Island time were accusations of racism or tactical racist voting, so Wes, Josh, Kaz not winning, or appearing in the bottom three, often sparked a sort of 'quelle surprise' wildfire notion." Those observations came in part from members of UK Black Twitter, who identified a correlation between the views expressed by some Fiat 500 Twitter users, the voting power of their demographic (who watch Love Island in their droves) and the results of votes on the show.
Tasha, 19, a Bath Spa University student and member of Black Twitter, definitely perceived these connections, though Love Island wasn't the first time she'd heard of Fiat 500 Twitter. "It was a huge thing around October, November, 2017 – that's when I first heard the phrase, anyway," she tells me. "My Twitter friends and I used to always talk about how girls whose profile photos were of them stood in front of a door, or put kisses after their tweets, or tweeted really, really relatable and basic shit would always get thousands of retweets."
This seems pretty in line with the general perception of the demographic, though Tasha believes that some Fiat 500 tweeters had always employed casual racism – "they'll refer to a Chinese takeaway as a 'ch*nk' and seem to have no remorse", she observes. It follows, then, that some of the same ignorant viewpoints filtered down into Love Island tweets from some parts of Fiat 500 Twitter. "I know a lot of people find Fiat 500 Twitter quite ignorant," says Tasha. "When they started saying stuff about Samira, or disliking her for 'no particular reason', it just made people a bit suspicious, as a huge majority of them are white."
As the series continued, parts of UK Black Twitter joked about Fiat 500 Twitter voting against the black contestants and other contestants of colour. "When Black Twitter started talking about the voting being racist, we were half-joking, as Love Island was the only time that two 'sides' of Twitter came together," Tasha explains. Those who were the subject of such jokes, she says, often reacted defensively: "When people started taking it personally and beefing everyone, trying to say 'it has nothing to do with race', you could deffo tell the series was over."
This is part of a larger pattern – made glaringly obvious by internet discourse – where white people accused of racism or unconscious racial bias will commonly react as if they've been personally insulted, rather than taking the criticism onboard. Some parts of Fiat 500 Twitter may have been perceived as ignorant in this way, though Tasha's keen to stress that, in her view, racism and Fiat 500 Twitter aren't necessarily a package deal.
While she identifies Fiat 500 Twitter as "Mainly Scottish white girls", she adds that "English or Welsh girls are not exempt, and black girls, or even Asian girls, can be Fiat 500. It's just anyone that follows that tweet format and has no grasp of what's actually going on in the world, with life revolving around takeaways and cheating boyfriends. It is its own mini culture, so anyone can be involved. I've had my own Fiat 500 moments – sometimes you just wanna complain about boys, don't ya?"
The best parts of Fiat 500 Twitter, then, are the ones with universal appeal – heart eyes next to a photo of a pizza, or posting about how much you hate your ex – and many of its tweeters do just want to talk about their nights out and how much they "want some fuckin chips x".
There's something quite funny about the idea that girly tweets about wearing woolly jumpers in autumn and going to a McDonald's drive-thru can spread so widely across Twitter as other users scramble for virality by trying to make the best jokes, and their success is sometimes also to the chagrin of men who don't think such ordinary, feminine interests are worth a lot.
But at the same time, it's crucial to recognise that when Fiat 500-style tweets do include prejudiced comments and veiled racism, their banality can also make the prejudice seem banal, flattening it – often with coded language, as Tasha points out – in order to package it inside Fiat 500 Twitter's usual mould of inconsequentiality (which in itself is reinforced by the "non-threatening" image of its young, female, largely white demographic).
Like any URL subculture, however, Fiat 500 Twitter is reflective of the IRL culture from which it comes – and that says a great, complicated deal about white British society, attitudes towards pursuits considered feminine in general and the ways in which prejudices like racism and internalised misogyny are expressed online.
Tagged:love island 2k18fiat 500 twitterBlack TwitterTwitterFeatures


Yesterday I shared my pre-college reading list here asking advice of friends on Twitter and Facebook as well. Thanks to everyone who responded.
I thought it would be good to try and summarise the advice I got here – I'm sure I'll end up adding to this over the months to come but I hope it serves as a resource for others and also a tribute to how fabulous all my friends on Twitter and Facebook are!
@vahva Have a holiday before you go to college!!
So far, from the list I had been given I have had Steven Croft & Roger Walton's Learning for Ministry recommended but actually ended up having some other books recommended which I have put on an Amazon wish list here.
Thanks to everyone who's contributed so far. I'll keep this post updated so feel free to keep adding your thoughts and suggestions.
@vahva I'd New Testament and the People of God – NT Wright.Bob Ekblad is a good shout, his New Christian Manifesto is good too.
Previous Which books should I read before going to Theological College?
2) make the most of the freedom between now and then to read what you want, or do other things that will help make space for the studying!
So, the book pile next to my chair stays mostly unread, and I'm off to Preston next week to visit my God-daughter and her family, in case I don't get much of a chance to see her for a while!
I will try and blog and cross reference to your list though, so we can compare notes a little more closely.


Ok, so I'll admit these photos are definitely from last February but I did a little bit of tweaking with the editing and I really felt like blogging them again because I'm shamelessly obsessed with all of the vendors I worked with. So here we are!
We rented a studio in Seattle that turned out to be kind of grimy and sad and weird but it didn't stop us from making magic. I knew I wanted a pretty neutral color palette for this shoot with beiges and pale pinks and what better way to get those colors than a simple white studio with hardwood floors and a dried bouquet from Pike Place, right? Right. As far as styled shoots go, I took a relatively minimalist approach and only worked with a few vendors, but given the fact that it was one of my first styled shoots ever, I think I did a pretty damn good job. But take a look for yourself! Tell me what you think!


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FEAST YOUR EYES: Nando's first pop-up gallery supports Southern African Art
In July we turned our Soho restaurant into an art gallery, showcasing art from some of the brightest stars in Southern Africa. With guest appearances from the artists themselves, some very special panellists, and - of course - plenty of PERi-PERi, we're still buzzing from the events!
So, why Southern African art and Nando's? For those who didn't already know, the spirit of Southern Africa runs through everything we do. Nando's was founded in 1987 in Johannesburg, South Africa - and our special PERi-PERi chillies are grown across Southern Africa. That's why we've got the biggest collection of contemporary Southern African art outside of Africa, with more than 19,000 pieces globally by more than 260 artists. So it only made sense that we filled our Soho restaurant-turned-gallery the emerging talent we're proud of!
All seven of the weekend's exhibitors are passionate individuals making waves with their work. So big-up to Henk Serfontein, Zemba Luzamba, Shakes Tembani, Patrick Bongoy, Norman O'Flynn, NomThunzi Mashalaba and Marlise Keith - we feel proud to have you up on our walls!
At Nando's we believe art has the power to bring people together, challenge perceptions and inspire conversations. We made it our mission for our Soho gallery to create a space where these beliefs could come to life - and if we could put a smile on a few faces along the way, even better!
Scrapping the traditional gallery rulebook, we got our audience to grips with the artists' worlds through VR headsets that transported visitors straight to the artists' studios. As well as live mosaic and African bead reconstructions, created by the very talented Neliswa and Zeenat, of two masterpieces throughout the night. Immersive, playful and creative, the layout was designed to tickle all the senses and, most importantly, get people talking.
"Art and creativity does bring people together."
In the lead up to our exciting new music studio launch, we decided to shake things up a little on the night with a unique cymatic art installation. Our beloved PERi-PERi sauce and salt danced along with the good vibrations from our latest soundtrack Zenzile - a track created by our first Music Exchange mentor, Muzi, and remixed by UK House DJ and Producer Hannah Wants. Check it out here.
Appearances from art collective Last Night In Paris and rap-sensation Example certainly didn't go unnoticed either. Not to mention insightful talks from four emerging London-based artists, Lilian Nejatpour, Eldon Somers, Sophie Rawlingson and Alexander Ikhide, on what it's like surviving in today's tough art climate.
Panellist Eldon Somers, said the event meant so much because through it, and others like it, "we can include certain people who feel othered or who don't feel comfortable getting involved in the art world." Eldon's already making waves in the UK art scene himself, and recently curated People of Colour, Colouring - a South London showcase including work exclusively by people of colour in order to promote diversity and inclusion in the art industry. "Art and creativity does bring people together," Eldon noted over the weekend, so let's keep doing exactly that!
Tune in to our podcast here >>
https://soundcloud.com/alexander-ikhide-1/nandos-soho-art-gallery-talks-...
Not only was the weekend a huge success in bringing together young emerging talent, but over half the art exhibited got snapped-up! And for any of the art that didn't make a sale, Nando's snapped it up anyway. Keep your eyes peeled for new additions enhancing our impressive collection on restaurant walls across the UK.
Just as Last Night In Paris put it, "let's eat some chicken and celebrate!"
Big love to all the talented folk involved in the success of Nando's debut art gallery! Make sure to check out Nando's latest art adventures here.
- Select - News Art
Get it while it's hot!
Results Day 2020
Nando's Craving Promotion


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Bonus Cut Films, Features
Bonus Cut Films Presents: An Interview With James Gardin (Part Two)
If you're at all familiar with Michigan hip-hop and Michigan music in general, then the name James Gardin (fka P.H.I.L.T.H.Y.) is commonplace. As one of Lansing's premier music icons for the last decade, James has shown how to get down, how to dance, how to properly enjoy a live show, how to fight for a cause and how to live in general. More than that though, James has fueled the hip-hop community beneficially in other ways. Working with Michigan State's MRULE and various other youth programs to donate art workshops, not to mention spending time in South Africa teaching kids with HIV/AIDS music and uniting them through it, James has never stopped being an influential and important figure in his community.
Musically, James has opened for the likes of Talib Kweli, The Cool Kids, Grieves and The Pack. He was also recently named one of Rapzilla's Freshman of 2014.
Today we're excited to unveil part two of our interview with the man himself! Check out the video below, and don't forget to check out James' pages and music!
Listen to James' latest single "Selah" here
For more on James Gardin:
James Gardin on Soundcloud
James Gardin on BandCamp
@JamesGardin on Twitter
Tagged BLAT! Pack, collaboration, culture, film, Hip hop, interview, james gardin, lansing, macs bar, michigan, Music, rap, unity
Mixing Hip-Hop Tunes With Basketball: Bonus Cut's Sweet Sixteen Celebration
In this installment I will quickly go over some interesting storylines that have happened thus far in the tournament. I will also assign more hip-hop cuts to teams in the Sweet Sixteen and re-predict the Elite Eight and Final Four given what I've seen so far.
Ah, what a first weekend it was. There was a load of barnburners (SF Austin and VCU, Kentucky and Wichita St.), the pleasantly shocking upsets (Dayton, Mercer, Stanford) and the merciless dominance of some heavy-hitters (Arizona, Baylor, Michigan). This goes without saying that, just like any other year, this year's parity played itself out like a finely tuned fiddle. Who would have predicted a Dayton vs. Stanford Sweet Sixteen game in Memphis? Who had Tennessee playing Michigan in Indy? Would you have guessed Baylor had the power to hold Doug McDermott, one of the greatest offensive players in the history of college basketball, to just 15 points in a 30 point thrashing of McDermott's Creighton Blue Jays? Smell that? Mmmm madness.
Tagged Arizona, AZ, basketball, culture, Dayton, eminem, geto boys, Hip hop, Kentucky, March Madness, Michigan State, Music, NCAA tournament, Stanford, tennessee, the left, UCONN, Virginia, wu-tang clan
Bonus Cut Poetry, Features
Bonus Cut Poetry: "The Duality of Things" By Nick Eaton
Photo by: jakobhansson
This is Bonus Cut Poetry, a series that features original poems by Bonus Cut staff, artists and YOU! In this series, our mission is to bring people together in poetry, share stories and display wonderful artistic pieces. If you would like to have your poems in the next Bonus Cut Poetry installment, just email us at bonuscut@gmail.com
This installment features guest-writer Nick Eaton.
Tagged Art, artistic expression, culture, Hip hop, poem, poet, poetry
Album of the Week: "Madvillainy" by Madvillain
Madvillainy
Stones Throw, 2004
Tagged 2004, culture, Hip hop, madlib, madvillain, Madvillainy, mf doom, Music, production, rap, Stones Throw
Features, Interviews
A Bonus Cut Feature: An Interview With Nique Love Rhodes
By: Gus Navarro
About three weeks ago, Dan and I attended the ULITT hip-hop conference at Michigan State University. In its third year, the ULITT conference presents a unique opportunity to learn, collaborate and network with artists, educators and community activists that incorporate hip-hop in their work. We met Nique Love Rhodes after a session hosted by Sacramento Knoxx. She came right up to us, introduced herself and handed us each CD's of Against All Odds, her album from 2012.
Tagged 5E, Against All Odds, Art, culture, cypher, Detroit, Hip hop, justice, michigan, Music, Nique Love Rhodes, rap, social change, Spring Arbor University, The Beehive, The Foundation
Mixing Hip-Hop Tunes With Basketball: Bonus Cut's March Madness Outlook
In this installment I will try to predict some March Madness outcomes, while at the time assigning certain teams a song that best fits their season and chances of taking home the hardware. Warning: you might not want to follow any advice I give, because I'm pretty sure the last couple of years I've ended up around the 60th percentile. But hey, in 2005 I won my father's office pool!
Tagged basketball, Big K.R.I.T., culture, Duke, florida, Gators, Hip hop, jon connor, March Madness, michigan, Michigan State, Music, NCAA tournament, North Carolina State, People Under The Stairs, quasimoto, rap, Red Pill & Hir-O, Shockers, Spartans, The Doppelgangaz, Wichita State, Wolverines
Bonus Cut Poetry: "#noFUCKINGpoet" By That Sweatpants Kid
This installment features Bonus Cut's own That Sweatpants Kid
Bonus Cut Poetry: "space between stars" By Ariel Kaplowitz
via http://thebookendsdotcom.files.wordpress.com
This installment features guest-writer Ariel Kaplowitz.


Temperament: You are so loving and affectionate! You kind of give "kisses" now [in your own way]. You snuggle into me and reach for me [makes me so happy]. You are funny too…you crack Dad & I up every day [for example, you were making fart noises into my elbow over and over again last week and I was crying laughing so hard].
Things I Could Do Without: This past week you've had 3 MAJOR blowouts. In store parking lots. Ew. You've been pretty amazing these last few weeks so I'm having a hard time thinking of things I don't like right now! You are such a good baby.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Your crib piano. You will stay in your crib for 30+ minutes in the morning just kicking it and listening to the music. Thanks for giving Mom and extra 30 minutes rest some mornings! It helps!
Things I'm Loving Most Right Now: You are wonderful in your car seat and stroller!! HALLELUJAH! I took you on a walk in the Joovy yesterday and you loved it. Finally I can use our amazing stroller [thanks RTR]! I'm loving you reaching for me. You really do know I'm your momma now. You have the adorable gummy smile now.
Things You're Loving Most Right Now: You know, I'm reading from last month and you love the same things but times a million now. You loved the bath before but now you are a wild man in there! You splash, kick, squeal, get water all over mommy's glasses. I loved bath time before but seeing you in there now is way funner! "Rockabye Baby" is the song that calms you down most when you're upset still. You can stand for a really long time!
Milestones: You can sit up on your own for a bit if you're on my lap. You tried rice cereal for the first time this month. We bought your first pair of Chucks yesterday! And your first bow tie. You're basically a stud.
We didn't end up going to Rosa's for your birthday because we lost a great man yesterday, your Great Grandpa. I'm glad you got to meet him. He was such a loving man. He loved babies and I know you brought a lot of joy into his life when you visited him. He was always there for people – always serving someone. He was such a hard worker and dedicated to his family. I hope you inherit those traits from him. It's times like these that the Gospel brings us the comfort that we need: that he's in a better place, that he's free from pain, that he's with Heavenly Father, and that we'll see him again because we are all sealed together as a family. He's probably up in heaven watching WWF on a recliner 🙂 We love you, Grandpa.
>You forgot santaholden. 🙂 Loved your words about Grandpa. Love you.


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Marcus Rashford becomes the youngest person to receive an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Manchester
Posted on 11th October 2021 by Gabrielle Rockson
In honour of his campaign against child poverty, Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has become the youngest person to receive an honorary degree from the University of Manchester.
As well as Alex's friends and family, former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was also there to watch the footballer accept the award.
Accepting the award, the 23-year-old said: "To be here in the presence of a great such as Sir Alex, and those who have played a huge role in my journey to be where I am today is special.
"I'm here to receive my Honorary Doctorate for my work around child poverty. Yesterday, millions of families across the UK lost a lifeline and a means of staying afloat. A move that could see child poverty rise to 1 in 3 children. For that reason, today is bittersweet.
"It's time that representatives got out into communities like mine. It's time they saw first-hand the true measure of struggle. COVID-19 can no longer be used as an excuse."
Sir Alex Ferguson, 79, and former Man-Utd player Sir Bobby Charlton, 84, have previously been honoured by the university.
A post shared by Marcus Rashford MBE (@marcusrashford)


Castle Square Tenants Organization held its Black History and Lunar New Year celebration on March 2 at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. (From) CSTO board president Ann Moy, executive director Deborah Backus, Boston city councilor Ed Flynn, Peng Chen. (Image courtesy of Valerie Li.).
MOSCOW, 6 March (BelTA) – The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is ready to participate in a peacemaking mission in Donbass, BelTA learned ... The CSTO peacekeeping forces can also be used in line with the decision of the United Nations Organization and can act upon the UN mandate.
... Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Center of Military Prognosis, Russian military expert, told Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent. So, according to him, if someone attacks any of the CSTO member countries, let's say Armenia, Moscow will react to this and take appropriate measures to protect its allies.
The US has joined the Channel anti-drug operation conducted by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the organization's Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov said ... The CSTO deputy secretary general elaborated that since the start of the operation, more than 360 tonnes of drugs had been seized.
MOSCOW, 27 February (BelTA) – The Permanent Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) looked into the draft list of topics for ... a draft plan for consultations between representatives of the CSTO member states on matters of foreign policy, security, and defense in H2 2018 – H1 2019.
Armenia and Russia have long maintained close military ties both on a bilateral basis and through their membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). That alliance has enabled Yerevan to receive large quantities of Russian weapons at discounted prices and even for free.