Food Distribution

Both housed and unhoused people alike struggle to consistently access healthy food. Each Wednesday morning, volunteers collect groceries from various locations in San Jose. Later that day in the afternoon, volunteers redistribute the food to folks needing assistance in our neighborhood.

Here we have Sandy and Calia preparing to distribute food.


There is something about the past that is so addictive, it could be familiarity that breeds comfort or replaying scenes over and over again to find answers , yet most of the exhaustive process leads to the mind being entangled in a web of confusion and echoes of should have, could have.

We all have our own habits, whether good or bad . Mine is stocking up every little piece of paper or notebook that i have scribbled something in. On the rare occasions when i do decide to clear my bookcases to make space, i find myself , looking for an excuse for keeping every piece of paper and notebook, then end up restocking them again, even adding more to the piles with the hope that these will come handy at some point.

Emotional baggage..

I am trying so hard not to fall into that temptation of dwelling on the past, but then i get the inner voice arguing that , if you don’t go back to look for answers how can you move forward.. Deep down i know it’s my mind just giving me excuses to pile negative emotions again.

To find peace with myself for my own wellbeing i’ am slowly coming to terms with the fact that although messy, scary, painful, and unsettling, with change comes growth. I am getting rid of the papers no matter how precious they might have seemed at some point, i am letting go, the same applies to memories, places and people that no longer contribute to my growth and well- being.

 Despite all the pain, fears, regrets and mistakes,   i now choose to focus  instead on what these experiences have taught me. Below are  some  of the important lessons which are helping me to pick myself, hope they save you too.

  1. Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get.Ray Bradbury

 Inner peace is achieved  when you remove yourself from things that  longer contribute to your growth and happiness. Stop chasing pavements and begging for attention from everyone everywhere. Don’t be afraid to close doors that do not lead to your goals.

2   It ain’t about how hard you are hit. It is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That is how winning is done!Rocky Bulboa

So what, it didn’t work out, you put in work, did your best, dont give up.  If  you want it so bad you have to keep your head up, no matter how much you feel defeated,  if you can look up, you can get up.

3. Choose all weather company,  people who not only celebrate you but inspire and motivate  you.

Be they virtual or physical, be sure to be with people who do not  dampen your spirits. Misery loves company, be with positive people who uplift you, shut does for people who belittle you, or make you feel  hopeless and worthless, you don’t need that type of energy.

4. The two most important days in our lives , the day you are born and the day you find out why. Mark Twain.

  Find your purpose , follow your passion  you have nothing to regret but regret.

5. The biggest mistake is not making a mistake, because you will never learn. Miles Tanhira

Life is a big game, no one has the secret, live, make mistakes, learn and keep playing don’t be so hard on yourself. Negative self-talk and worry will not contribute to your wellbeing and success.


When scientific models fail

Typed and scraped into Arcturus

From what I see so far Climate Change Research involves a lot of analysis of data sets. I don’t what the ratio of actual measurement to analysis is. I don’t know how often models are tested against experiment or against observed values.

Here’s a scientist concerned about an area of data analysis where there is a great flexibility in choosing models, choosing parameters, choosing methods and with little check against reality. I’ll leave it hidden for a little while where this was published. It’s in a closed access publication which costs about 30 USD for 2 days access, so I’m going to copy the abstract (which I may) and some sentences from the body for which I will claim fair-use. I’ll promise to give the reference later to be fair to the publisher (maybe their sales will increase as a result of my promotion). I’ll hide some key terms (XYZ is a common approach/philosophy) to add to the mystery

A general feeling of disillusionment with XYZ has settled across the modeling community in recent years. Most practitioners seem to agree that XYZ has not fulfilled the expectations set for its ability to predict […]. Among the possible reasons that have been proposed recently for this disappointment are chance correlation, rough response surfaces, incorrect functional forms, and overtraining. Undoubtedly, each of these plays an important role in the lack of predictivity seen in most XYZ models. Likely to be just as important is the role of the fallacy cum hoc ergo propter hoc in the poor prediction seen with many XYZ models. By embracing fallacy along with an over reliance on statistical inference, it may well be that the manner in which XYZ is practiced is more responsible for its lack of success than any other innate cause.

Sound familiar? Here are some more sentences excerpted from the text…

However, not much has truly changed, and most in the field continue to be frustrated and disappointed why do XYZ models continue to yield significant prediction errors?

How could it be that we consistently arrive at wrong models? With the near infinite number of [parameters] coupled with incredibly flexible machine learning algorithms, perhaps the question really should be why do we expect anything else. XYZ has devolved into a perfectly practiced art of logical fallacy. Cum hoc ergo propter hoc (with this, therefore because of this) is the logical fallacy in which we assign causality to correlated variables. …

Rarely, if ever, are any designed experiments presented to test or challenge the interpretation of the [parameters]. Occasionally, the model will be tested against a set of [data] unmeasured during the development of the model. …

In short, XYZ disappoints because we have largely exchanged the tools of the scientific method in favor of a statistical sledgehammer. Statistical methodologies should be a tool of XYZ but instead have often replaced the craftsman tools of our traderational thought, controlled experiments, and personal observation.

With such an infinite array of descriptions possible, each of which can be coupled with any of a myriad of statistical methods, the number of equivalent solutions is typically fairly substantial. Each of these equivalent solutions, however, represents a hypothesis regarding the underlying [scientific] phenomenon. It may be that each largely encodes the same basic hypothesis but only in subtly different ways. Alternatively, it may be that many of the hypotheses are distinctly different from one another in a meaningful, perhaps unclear, physical way. …

XYZ suffers from the number and complexity of hypotheses that modern computing can generate. The lack of interpretability of many [parameters] only further confounds XYZ. We can generate so many hypotheses, … that the process of careful hypothesis testing so critical to scientific understanding has been circumvented in favor of blind validation tests with low resulting information content. XYZ disappoints so often, not only because the response surface is not smooth but because we have embraced the fallacy that correlation begets causation. By not following through with careful, designed, hypothesis testing we have allowed scientific thinking to be co-opted by statistics and arbitrarily defined fitness functions. Statistics must serve science as a tool; statistics cannot replace scientific rationality, experimental design, and personal observation.

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Eight Facts about Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is a widespread bacterial disease that has been around for much of recorded human history. The following are some key facts about TB to learn more about what is going on with the disease.

  1. Symptoms of TB include persistent coughing, chest pain, fever, fatigue and chills. TB most often infects the lungs. It is a contagious disease and is transported through the air.
  2. In 2014, there were 9.6 million cases of TB and 1.5 million deaths as a result. According to these findings, TB was the most deadly infectious disease in the world that year.
  3. Ninety-five percent of deaths caused by TB occur in low- and middle-income countries. Not only does TB disproportionately affect people in these countries, but also people living in developed countries are often unaware of the prevalence and danger of TB.
  4. TB is particularly dangerous to those who are HIV positive. Those with HIV are 26 to 31 times more likely to develop TB than those without HIV. One-third of HIV-related deaths in 2015 were a result of a TB infection.
  5. Latent TB actually infects about one-third of the world’s population. In its latent form, the TB bacteria are not active, meaning they do not cause symptoms and are not contagious. However, those with latent TB have a 10 percent chance of contracting active TB in their lifetime.
  6. TB is a treatable disease. Typically, a properly prescribed program of antibiotics can cure the disease. However, multidrug-resistant TB, which arises due to improper treatment can pose an obstacle. When a treatment of antibiotics fails to eradicate all the bacteria, drug resistant strains can develop.
  7. Much progress has been made against TB. From 2000 to 2015, the incidence rate of TB dropped by 18 percent, and from 1990 to 2015, the death rate dropped by 47 percent. Another way to look at TB reduction is to realize that from 2000 to 2014, 43 million lives were saved as a result of efforts to combat TB.
  8. An anti-TB drug specifically for children’s use was developed early this year. In the past, children had to use adult medication, which meant manually cutting down the dosage to meet the children’s needs. The new child-specific drug comes in appropriate doses, is dissolvable in water for ease of consumption, and even tastes better.

These facts illustrate how dangerous TB is and also the progress that is being made against it as well. With additional developments, the world can hope that the U.N.’s sustainable development goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030 will become a reality.

Edmond Kim

Photo: Flickr


Changes to Core Standards

Indiana’s Revised Academic Standards for Chemistry

Chemistry I

Students should understand that scientific knowledge is gained from observation of natural phenomena and experimentation, by designing and conducting investigations guided by theory, and by evaluating and communicating the results of those investigations according to accepted procedures. Thus, scientific knowledge is scientists' best explanations for the data from many investigations. Further, ideas about objects in the microscopic world that we cannot directly sense are often understood in terms of concepts developed to understand objects in the macroscopic world that we can see and touch. In the science classroom student work should align with this process of science and should be guided by the following principles. These should be woven throughout the daily work that students are doing when learning the content presented in the standard indicators.

·  Develop explanations based on reproducible data and observations gathered during laboratory investigations.

·  Recognize that their explanations must be based both on their data and other known information from investigations of others.

·  Clearly communicate their ideas and results of investigations verbally and in written form using tables, graphs, diagrams, and photographs.

·  Regularly evaluate the work of their peers and in turn have their work evaluated by their peers.

·  Apply standard techniques in laboratory investigations to measure physical quantities in appropriate units and convert known quantities to other units as necessary.

·  Use analogies and models (mathematical and physical) to simplify and represent systems that are difficult to understand or directly experience due to their size, time scale, or complexity, and recognize the limitations of analogies and models.

·  Focus on the development of explanatory models based on their observations during laboratory investigations.

·  Explain that the body of scientific knowledge is organized into major theories, which are derived from and supported by the results of many experiments, and allow us to make testable predictions.

·  Recognize that new scientific discoveries often lead to a re-evaluation of previously accepted scientific knowledge and of commonly held ideas.

·  Describe how scientific discoveries lead to the development of new technologies, and conversely how technological advances can lead to scientific discoveries through new experimental methods and equipment.

·  Explain how scientific knowledge can be used to guide decisions on environmental and social issues.

Standard 1: Properties and States of Matter

Core Standard

Describe the nature of physical and chemical properties and changes of matter.

Core Standard

Compare and contrast states of matter at the molecular level.

C.1.1 Based on physical properties, differentiate between pure substances and mixtures.

C.1.2 Observe and describe chemical and physical properties of different types of matter and designate them as either extensive or intensive.

C.1.3 Recognize observable indicators of chemical changes.

C.1.4 Describe physical and chemical changes at the molecular level.

C.1.5 Describe the characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases and state changes at the molecular level.

C.1.6 Explain and apply the law of conservation of mass as it applies to chemical processes.

C.1.7 Define density and distinguish among materials based on densities. Perform calculations involving density.

Standard 2: Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table

Core Standard

Describe how the properties and arrangement of the subatomic particles contributes to the structure of the atom.

Core Standard

Describe how the structure of the periodic table reflects the numbers of electrons and protons and the configuration of the electrons in an atom.

C.2.1 Describe how models of atomic structure changed over time based on available experimental evidence and understand the current model of atomic structure.

C.2.2 Describe how the subatomic particles (protons, neutrons, and electrons) contribute to the structure of an atom and recognize that the particles within the nucleus are held together against the electrical repulsion of the protons.

C.2.4 Calculate the average atomic mass of an element from isotopic abundance data.

C.2.5 Write the electron configuration of an element and relate this to its position on the periodic table.

C.2.6 Use the periodic table and electron configurations to determine an element's number of valence electrons, and chemical and physical properties.

C.2.7 Compare and contrast nuclear reactions with chemical reactions. For nuclear reactions, describe how the fusion and fission processes transform elements present before the reaction into elements present after the reaction.

C.2.8 Understand that the radioactive decay process is random for any given atom, but that this property leads to a predictable and measurable exponential decay of a sample of radioactive material. Calculate the initial amount, the fraction remaining, or the half-life of a radioactive isotope, given two of the three variables.

Standard 3: Bonding and Molecular Structure

Core Standard

Describe how the configuration of electrons within an atom determines its interactions with other atoms.

Core Standard

Describe the attractive forces between molecules and how their effect on chemical and physical properties.

C.3.1 Describe, compare, and contrast the characteristics of the interactions between atoms in ionic and covalent compounds.

C.3.2 Compare and contrast how ionic and covalent compounds form.

C.3.4 Draw structural formulas for and name simple molecules.

C.3.5 Write chemical formulas for ionic compounds given their names and vice versa.

Standard 4: Reactions and Stoichiometry

Core Standard

Use balanced chemical equations and the mole concept to determine the quantities of reactants and products.

C.4.1 Predict products of simple reactions such as synthesis, decomposition, single replacement and double replacement.

C.4.2 Balance chemical equations using the law of conservation of mass and use them to describe chemical reactions.

C.4.3 Use the mole concept to determine the number of moles and number of atoms or molecules in samples of elements and compounds, given mass of the sample.

C.4.4 Using a balanced chemical equation, calculate the quantities of reactants needed and products made in a chemical reaction that goes to completion.

C.4.5 Describe, classify and give examples of various kids of reactions-synthesis (combination), decomposition, single displacement, double displacement and combustion.

C.4.6 Determine oxidation states and identify the substances apparently gaining and losing electrons in redox reactions.

C.4.7 Perform calculations to determine percent composition by mass of a compound or mixture when given the formula.

Standard 5: Behavior of Gases

Core Standard

Using the kinetic molecular theory, describe and explain the behavior of ideal gases.

Core Standard

Examine the relationship between number of moles, volume, pressure, and temperature for ideal gases, using the ideal gas equation of state PV = nRT.

C.5.1 Use kinetic molecular theory to explain changes in gas volumes, pressure, moles, and temperature.

C.5.2 Using the ideal gas equation of state, PV = nRT, calculate the change in one variable when another variable is changed and the others are held constant.

C.5.3 Given the equation for a chemical reaction involving one or more gases as reactants and/or products calculate the volumes of gas assuming the reaction goes to completion and the ideal gas law holds.

Standard 6: Thermochemistry

Core Standard

Recognize that chemical reactions result in either the release or absorption of energy.

Core Standard

Apply the law of conservation of energy.

C.6.1 Explain that atoms and molecules that make up matter are in constant motion and that this motion increases as thermal energy increases.

C.6.2 Distinguish between the concepts of temperature and heat flow in macroscopic and microscopic terms.

C.6.3 Solve problems involving heat flow and temperature changes, using known values of specific heat and/or phase change constants (latent heat values).

C.6.4 Classify chemical reactions and phase changes as exothermic or endothermic.

Standard 7: Solutions

Core Standard

Describe the composition and characteristics of solutions.

Core Standard

Identify the factors that qualitatively affect solubility, reaction rates and dynamic equilibrium.

C.7.1 Describe the composition and properties of types of solutions.

C.7.2 Explain how temperature, pressure and polarity of the solvent affect the solubility of a solute.

C.7.3 Describe the concentration of solutes in solution in terms of molarity. Perform calculations using molarity, mass, and volume.

C.7.4 Prepare a specific volume of a solution of a given molarity when provided with a known solute.

C.7.5 Explain how the rate of a reaction is qualitatively affected by changes in concentration, temperature, surface area, and the use of a catalyst.

C.7.6 Write equilibrium expressions for reversible reactions.

Standard 8: Acids and Bases

Core Standard

Use acid-base definitions to identify acids and bases given their formulas and reactions.

Core Standard

Explain the meaning of the value indicated by the pH scale in terms of the hydrogen ion concentration for any aqueous solution.

C.8.1 Use Arrhenius and Brønsted-Lowry definitions to classify substances as acids or bases.

C.8.2 Describe the characteristic properties of acids and bases.

C.8.3 Compare and contrast the dissociation and strength of acids and bases in solution.

C.8.4 Given the hydronium (H3O+) ion concentration in a solution, calculate the pH, and vice versa. Explain the meaning of these values.

C.8.5 From acid-base titration data, calculate the concentration of an unknown solution.

Standard 9: Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry

Core Standard

Describe the unique nature of carbon atoms demonstrated by their ability to bond to one another and other elements, forming countless carbon-based substances and macromolecules.

C.9.1 Use structural formulas to illustrate carbon atoms’ ability to bond covalently to one another to form many different substances.

C.9.2 Illustrate the variety of molecular types formed by the covalent bonding of carbon atoms and describe the typical properties of these molecular types.


american-839775_1920[tl;dr: This is a ~3.5k word essay on why the biggest threat posed by a Trump Presidency is to liberal-republican institutions at home and abroad. It suggests placing specific policy debates  on the back burner in favor of forming and maintaining a broad political coalition—one aimed at preserving those two aspects of American liberal order.  In brief, you can always change tax rates, but once democratic institutions and America’s web of international partnerships are gone, they will be monumentally difficult to put back together. Focusing on this kind of action is a matter of prudence; one hopes that it proves unnecessary. The essay does not discuss the fate of democracy in other countries, although that too remains a major concern. The piece collects and synthesizes arguments that I have made in other social media, most notably Twitter.]

A number of people are now sharing stories about Trump and his circle with the caption “This is not normal.” The pieces range widely in subject matter. They range from  apparent purges of insufficiently loyal members of Trump’s transition team to Kansas Secretary of State—and transition-team member—Kris Kobach’s discussion of “drafting a proposal for his consideration to reinstate a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.”

They are right: none of this is normal.

My wager in this post is that Trump’s election may amount to an inflection point in the institutional fabric of our political system. And by this, I do not simply mean our domestic republican institutions. I also mean the broadly liberal-republican international order constructed after World War II.  Indeed, these two sets of institutions are profoundly bootstrapped to one another. This dual threat amounts to the greatest challenge to the American experiment since the early years of the Cold War.

The nature of this challenge requires us to set aside normal politics. It requires a broad coalition—of liberals, progressives, conservatives, libertarians, and moderates—to come together with the purpose of monitoring and protecting the health of those institutions. Such a coalition will fail if it becomes divided by policy differences. At this moment, many of the standard debates—about taxes, the level of economic regulation, and size of the defense budget, and so forth—are of secondary importance. Indeed, their elevation to existential concerns helped bring us to this point.

As I’ve argued on Twitter, most Americans—and academics—operate with the assumption that political institutions are sticky. Once constructed, they prove difficult to radically transform—in the absence of huge shocks such as revolutions, wars, and economic collapse. And, in many respects, that’s a reasonable assumption. Institutions structure political competition and cooperation, create vested interests, and otherwise generate their own mechanisms of perpetuation.

In the American system, we have multiple “veto points” spread across our Courts, Congress, and the Presidency. Our federal system devolves a fair amount of authority to the states, making top-down change harder than, say, in France. Indeed, France is on its Fifth Republic, but the United States has enjoyed the same fundamental law—its constitution—since 1789. On top of that, we have a complex, professional bureaucracy that requires immense knowledge and willpower to set in a radically different trajectory.

All of these factors may rightly provide reason to discount my alarmism (and I am being deliberately alarmist). But this is not a good year to bet on the stability of liberal-democratic institutions. The Philippines, with its wave of extra-judicial killings and the deaths of elected officials, is seeing rapid democratic backsliding. Turkey looks in danger of quickly moving through the hybrid-regime phase into outright autocracy.

Americans generally look at democratic backsliding as something that happens “to other people.” As the well-known phrase itself calls into question, we believe that “it can’t happen here.”

But underneath the trappings of continuity—a longstanding continuous currency, the US Constitution, and the like—the United States has indeed undergone radical change. In practical terms, American institutions look almost nothing like they did prior to the Civil War.

Consider this way of thinking about the first 190 years of American political development: We first tried a confederation. We quickly gave up on that and built a semi-centralized federation. That federation collapsed into civil war. The victors established a more centralized federation. We further struggled over the terms of central authority through the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II. The post-war period saw the combination of a more national-state apparatus combined with a regional race-based hybrid regime. The Federal Government, pushed by a great social movement, ended many of the institutional props of those regional apartheid systems.

Moreover, during the long nineteenth century, the United States was a continental empire. It established settler colonies and displaced indigenous inhabitants. After the Spanish-American War, the US explicitly established an overseas empire. Vestiges of those empires still remain, even if many of the territories of the first became part of the American federation.greateramericamap

We could discuss many more examples. In fact, the history of ethnic, religious, and racial inclusion and exclusion itself supplies a great deal more empirical material. But all of this evidence would all point in the same direction: beneath the superficial stability of the American system—beneath its apparent equilibrium—lies great political instability and ongoing transformation.

The same is true of the post-war liberal international order, including the World Bank, the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). To these, and other, institutions we might add more recent ones, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the European Union (EU), and the EU’s predecessor agreements and institutions.  Beyond these ‘named’ organizations lies a host of relationships, networks, partnerships, and alliances. In this diplomatic and military web, the US is at least primus inter pares.

By Barry Livingstone (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0]

Of course, many observers—and certainly political scientists—tend to think of international institutions as much less ‘sticky’ than their domestic counterparts. But right or wrong, we’ve grown accustomed to this overall topography of the contemporary international system. American policymakers largely take it for granted, as do many allies—and rivals.

Much of this order was designed around particular diagnoses of ‘what went wrong’ in the 1920s and 1930s. If the world was ‘never again’ to experience fascism and global warfare, it needed mechanisms to prevent global depression, to limit protectionism, and to make interstate war more difficult and less attractive.

How well this worked is a matter of some debate. Interstates wars have been markedly less common since 1945, and again since 1991. But the system failed to prevent genocide and mass deaths in China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Rwanda, and many other countries. And the Cold War threw a serious wrench into the machinery. It should go without saying that the current version looks rather different than the one developed in the 1940s, including very significant changes in the economic projects pursued by, say, the IMF.

At the same time, NATO did succeed in “keep[ing] the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down.” After the Cold War, NATO expansion to former Warsaw Pact states—and eventually to the Baltic states—was part of a second major wave of US-led order building.  One pursued—at least in intent—to prevent a power vacuum in central and eastern Europe, consolidate democratic institutions, and, overall, constitute western Europe as a “democratic security community” in which war would prove very unlikely. Although this is a matter of debate, I do not see NATO expansion and the EU project—particularly its extension—as ultimately separable. They facilitated one another.

By DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

As all of this suggests, we can find a lot of upsides and downsides in international order—just like we can in any domestic order. Economic globalization has produced winners and losers. It seems highly correlated with rising class inequality. Although Daniel Drezner argues that “the system worked” in preventing the Great Recession from turning into the Second Great Depression, the rise of right-wing populism suggests that it did not do quite so well after all. Progressives and populists alike believe that the system has become captured by economic elites—and particularly by financial interests—in a way that both drove the crisis in the first place and exacerbated inequality in its wake.

I tend to agree with this diagnoses—which I will try to write about at a later time—but we should not confuse two different questions: “which liberal order?” and “whether liberal order?” Again, just like a domestic order, the institutions and instruments of international order can be used for better or for worse. Perhaps NATO expansion contributed to a backlash in Russia—the matter is actually far more complicated than participants in the debate often admit—but it also has created a security community among most of its member-states, and therefore restrained dangerous (and costly) militarized power politics.

k8304This example highlights an important feature of contemporary institutional order. As Daniel Deudney argues, the post-war international order needs to be understood in light of the US republican project. One of the greatest long-standing threats to republican liberty lies in militarization. This is not simply a matter of Caeserism—of military leaders undermining and overthrowing republics.

Rather, great-power competition erodes republican institutions through a variety of mechanisms. It expands the coercive capacity of the state to maintain high-level military mobilization. It encourages the suppression of domestic dissent in the name of national security. And it, as Thucydides recognized, corrupts the culture of democracy through abuses abroad. It should be obvious that these three mechanisms have operated even within the liberal order. But they would prove much worse without it.k6868

For example, imagine a world in which the United States could not count on ‘zones of peace’ and needed to worry about the threat posed by military capabilities of (merely) all of the eight largest economies. In nominal terms, that adds Japan (#3), Germany (#4), the United Kingdom (#5), France (#6), and Italy (#8) as large powers outside of the American security system.  And imagine a world in which the United States’ military campaigns looked like Russia’s in Syria.

If you are unmoved by such concerns, consider the significant blow to American influence that would result from a collapse of this diplomatic and military web. This is what Alex Cooley and I have termed Washington’s “exorbitant geostrategic privilege.” It is, in fact, a great deal of what sets the United States apart from its nearest great-power peers. Moscow envies it—and is doing its best to wedge it apart. Beijing would like to build something similar for itself.

In fact, the order is under a variety of pressures. For example, economic dislocation, particularly after the Great Recession, has eroded support for it among Americans and Europeans. It’s also under a variety of strains from ongoing shifts in the global distribution of power. It remains unclear whether new institutions will net undermine or enhance key features of the current international order.

China’s position might best be described as ambivalent: Beijing (in crude terms) likes the economic openness, likes sovereignty norms, and dislikes liberal rights insofar as they threaten domestic stability. Russia is much more hostile, and would like to see its interests accommodated or the system overhauled entirely.  But to the extent that more patrons—whether hostile or indifferent to these norms and practices—are available to regimes to play off of one another, this puts pressure on international liberal norms and institutions.

What is clear is that western powers—most notably the United States—will need to make adjustments to accommodate new powers or newly assertive old ones. What was less clear, until November 8th, was the possibility that Washington itself might become a problem for the arrangements that have served it—and its core allies—so well.

Which takes us back to domestic institutions. The end of the Cold War was supposed to herald a golden age for American democracy. Instead, it saw the continuation of old problems and the emergence of new ones.

For one, the end of the Cold War did little to unwind the so-called “Imperial Presidency.” The Clinton-Gore “Reinventing Government” initiative did lead to reductions in the ‘size’ of government.  There was something of a “Peace Dividend.” But any substantive gains on these fronts have been basically erased by the War on Terror.

In qualitative terms, executive power has only expanded since 1991. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have done anything to reverse course. Indeed, the only genuflection in this direction was Obama’s desire to replace the post-9/11 Authorization for the Military Use of Force (AUMF). It went nowhere, even as Obama stretched the limits of the existing AUMF.

Most politically conscious Americans are aware of the debate over the use of executive orders—and about the apparent hypocrisy of the political parties on the issue. In almost no cases did Bush or Obama actually exceed their legal authority—and neither did in an unambiguous way—but what’s at stake here is more than simple legality. It concerns the norms by which American institutions function.

These norms have been under sustained assault. Consider the gridlock that drove Obama to rely on executive powers. In the most general sense, we’ve seen a breakdown of basic governance norms. In the last six years, for example, the GOP congress has: refused to fix problems—even technical ones—with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) out of a desire to see it fail; flipped positions on policies of mutual agreement simply because the Democrats support them—we will see a number of these pass in the next six months, because GOP President; and declined to hold hearings on the President’s Supreme Court nominee on the grounds that the final quarter of a four-year term constitutes a “lame duck” session.

But, whatever Democrats may say, this isn’t only a story of the Republican party. Our post-war institutional arrangement is not particularly well-suited for extreme political polarization. And weaponizing that polarization creates extremely grave consequences. Not least of which is producing circumstances in which partisans—who know a candidate is unqualified, ignorant of the basic workings of our system and government, and quite possibly dangerous—vote for him or her out of tribal allegiance.

By Chris hare84 (Own work) [CC BY 3.0]

By Chris hare84 (Own work) [CC BY 3.0]

The rot is not simply at the top. The assault on voting rights that has played out in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and elsewhere obviously harkens back to the old Jim Crow. But its widespread acceptance among Republicans—and tolerance by people ‘who know better’—is as also about partisanship. That is, if African American were not some of the most loyal Democratic voters, Republican majorities would not seek to minimize their political power. And before the rants start, I need to say that I know that the reasons for these circumstances lie firmly with the Civil Rights realignment, and I know race is woven into the fabric of our politics. No question. But keep in mind that these efforts also target college students. Race undergirds all of this, but I submit that it is partisanship that facilitates, shields, and normalizes this process of democratic backsliding.

To take stock.

First, we have the breakdown of governance norms. Put differently, we have policy disagreements—over tax rates, subsidies, or the manner in which we regulate the health-care market—treated as existential threats to the Republic of such intensity that any tactic becomes acceptable.

Indeed, we have now seen presidents and presidential candidates who—whatever their faults and whatever their incremental contributions to executive overreach—are most certainly within the realm of normal (such as Obama, Romney, and Clinton) demonized as clear-and-present dangers to the country.

Second, we have voter disenfranchisement. Even if you believe that fraud exists, the scale of the ‘lost votes’ to restrictive voting measures easily exceeds that rate of fraud.

What else do we have?

We have Fox News.

And no, the problem with Fox News is not it’s conservative bias. Conservatives—along with those holding other political ideologies—have a right to worry about bias in other organs of the mainstream media. In fact, the US is a bit unusual. Many democracies have overtly partisan presses.

Rather, the problem is that Fox looks, sounds, and feels increasingly indistinguishable from what you would see on state-run media in authoritarian and hybrid regimes. When Obama was President, this didn’t seem so bad. For instance, what’s a bit of harmless ‘fun’ about the hidden ‘muslim image’ in the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit logo.

But it becomes another matter entirely when Fox is not simply a vector for the neo-Birchers on the right, but when someone like Trump is President.

The kind of tribalism often found on Fox—our side is morally pure, except when they’re traitors, and their side is awful—is not limited to right-wing media. Indeed, if equivalent claims in Democratic media had a comparable reach, and Democrats controlled the government, we’d have cause for alarm. This kind of absolutist representational framework is dangerous. It justifies not only withholding protection from victims, but also victimizing them twice over as targets of political repression.

Even more dangerous, however, is alleging that people exercising basic rights of political action are ‘professional’ provocateurs operating on behalf of shadowy foreign interests—for example, foreign-born Jewish financiers.

Fox News:

Such rhetoric is literally part of the playbook found in post-Soviet autocracies. More broadly, this is what authoritarian and hybrid regimes do: they relentlessly demonize protestors and those engaged in open acts of dissent as tools of foreign agents. If you studied comparative politics, and saw a wave of this rhetoric appear on state-run media in a fragile democracy, you would be ringing alarm bells.

Roger Stone, advisor to President-elect Trump, has claimed that violence at Trump rallies was all ‘false flag’ work by ‘goons’ linked to, among others, Soros.

And that’s why we should be very worried, indeed. Our next Republican President is not Romney. It’s not Jeb. It’s not Rubio. It’s not Kasich.

It’s Donald Trump.

If you’ve made it this far, then you don’t need a comprehensive list of ways in which Trump’s rhetoric and offhand comments suggest a lack of deep commitment to democratic liberties and institutions  (you can find links to reporting across the political spectrum in his name). Nor do you need a reminder of the textbook demagoguery of his campaign, the strong indicators that he—or his inner circle—values loyalty above competence, his complete lack of preparation, his appointment of a white ethnonationalist as special advisor, the central role played by his children and son-in-law in shaping his government, or the known  and ‘known unknown’ financial conflicts of interests involving the Trump family.

On their own, these things are a cause for concern. Taken together, they should terrify you. They suggest an indifferent President, easily molded by his inner circle, and with an administration quite possibly staffed largely by loyalists who lack deep commitments to—or understandings of—the institutions of governance.* Add to that the massive powers of the contemporary Presidency—including the justice department and foreign policy—and the lack of checks created by undivided governance in an era of extreme partisanship. Then recall that Trump has openly campaigned on unconstitutional policies.

Indeed, despite the significant stimulus likely to flow from Trump’s initial policies, we are very likely to face a recession in the next four years. Also, international crises, terrorist attacks, and other shocks loom. All of these could encourage doubling down on the politics of division—and even repression.

In foreign policy, while Trump has made some efforts to calm the nerves of allies, his long-held worldview has been consistently antithetical to liberal order. He sees foreign relations through a short-term, transactional lens that places little intrinsic value on, say, NATO. Indeed, America’s European and Asian allies remain profoundly nervous and our autocratic partners pleased. Moscow sees great opportunities.

The optimistic case is that these institutional structures are too robust for any administration to break beyond repair. But the thing about institutions—domestic or international—is that you often don’t realize until too late that they’ve changed beyond recognition. Or how fragile they are until they collapse. The other thing about democratic norms and institutions is once they break, they’re very hard to put back together. What is true domestically is doubly true internationally.

In other words, we can change policies. If you’re a libertarian, you can hope to undo Trump’s likely military budgets. If you’re a liberal, you can rebuild the welfare state. If you’re a conservative, you can push for balanced budgets. Climate is a bigger problem—because major reversals now could make meeting optimistic targets very, very hard—but even here environmentalists can live to fight another day.

But if we lose our institutions, we are in serious trouble. Often, the United States has played the “White Knight” pushing democratization. What country can play that role for the United States if we head towards a hybrid regime? What all of this means seems to me quite clear: We should hope for the best—that Trump is a successful President who tames his worst impulses and receives wise council—but prepare for the worst.

That means building a broad political coalition with one goal: keeping these institutions alive. Doing so requires setting aside policy differences (in fact, on routine policy matters I see no problem with Democrats and country-first Republicans working with Trump). It requires putting country over party. And it requires doing this because of something basic we know about creeping authoritarianism and hybrid regimes—the strongest force for democracy is a united opposition; divide-and-rule tactics are the first resort of the autocrat.

*Here there remains hope that the cabinet, at least, will include committed public servants with experience and independent constituencies. But the next level down still looks dicey.


Dual carriageway

Freeway of Route 25 between Tuluá and Andalucía, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. In 2014 there were 2,279 kilometers of dual carriageway highways in Colombia.
A German dual carriageway in the 1930s

A dual carriageway (British English) or divided highway (American English) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation. Roads with two or more carriageways which are designed to higher standards with controlled access are generally classed as motorways, freeways, etc., rather than dual carriageways.

One claim for the first divided highway in the United States was Savery Avenue in Carver, Massachusetts, first built in 1860, where the two roadways were separated by a narrow strip of trees down the middle.[1] In 1907 the Long Island Motor Parkway opened, and roughly 20% of it featured a semi-dual-carriageway design. The New York City Belt Parkway system, which was built between 1907 and 1934, also pioneered the same design. However the majority of it featured concrete or brick railings as lane dividers instead of grass medians.

European implementationsEdit

Diagram of types of road in the UK

United KingdomEdit

In the UK, although the term "dual carriageway" applies to any road with physically separated lanes, it is frequently used as a descriptive term for major routes built in this style. Such major dual carriageways usually have two lanes of traffic in each direction, with the lane nearest the centre being reserved for overtaking.[5] Occasionally dual carriageways have only one lane in each direction, or more than two lanes each way (sometimes to permit easier overtaking of slower uphill traffic). Different speed limits apply on dual carriageway sections from those that apply on single carriageway sections of the same class of road, except in cities and built-up areas where the dual carriageway is more of a safety measure.

When first constructed, many dual carriageways—including the first motorways—had no crash- or other barriers in the central reservation. In the event of congestion, or if a driver missed their exit, some drivers made U-turns onto the opposite carriageway; many accidents were caused as a result of their misjudging the speed of approaching traffic on the other carriageway when doing so.

The majority of dual carriageway roads now have barriers. Some are heavy concrete obstructions which can bounce a vehicle back into the path of other traffic; others are made from steel ropes mounted on moderately weak posts, where the rope cuts into the vehicle body to slow the vehicle while keeping it against the barrier until it has stopped. Often on urban dual carriageways where the road has been converted from a four-lane single carriageway the central reservation will not be substantial: often just a small steel divider to save space.

Turning right (that is, across the line of traffic heading in the opposite direction) is usually permitted only at specific locations. Often the driver will be required to turn left (away from the dual carriageway) in order to loop around to an access road that permits crossing the major road. Roundabouts on dual carriageways are relatively common, especially in cities or where the cost of a grade-separated junction would be prohibitive. Where space is even more limited, intersections may be controlled by traffic lights. Smaller residential roads adjoining urban dual carriageways may be blocked off at one end to limit the number of junctions on the dual carriageway; often other roads will pass over or under the dual carriageway without an intersection.

A dual carriageway with grade-separated junctions and which meets other requirements may be upgraded to motorway standard, denoted by an (M) added after the road number (e.g. "A1(M)" or "A38(M)"). Unlike in Ireland, there was no official terminology for 'high-quality dual carriageways' until April 2015, when in England a new standard was set to designate certain high-quality routes formally as "Expressways".[6] Many roads such as the A1, the A14, the A19 and the A42 are built to a high quality, with grade-separated junctions, full barriers at roadside and central reservations and, in some cases, three lanes of traffic. They may still fall short of motorway standard in terms of hard shoulders, the height of overpasses or the quality of intersecting junctions.

Speed limitsEdit

National speed limits on dual carriageways in the UK[7][8]
Type of vehicle Speed limit
Car, motorcycle or a car-based van up to 2 metric tonnes 70 mph (113 km/h)
Car with caravan or trailer 60 mph (97 km/h)
Bus or coach up to 12 m long 60 mph (97 km/h)
Goods vehicle up to 7.5 t 60 mph (97 km/h)
Goods vehicle over 7.5 t 60 mph (97 km/h) (England and Wales)
50 mph (80 km/h) (Scotland and Northern Ireland)

Dual carriageways of this class differ from motorways in a number of ways. The hard shoulder is demarcated with a dashed yellow line (as opposed to an unbroken yellow line on motorways). The standard speed limit of 100 km/h (62 mph)[convert: invalid option] for national routes usually applies (by default the limit is 80 km/h (50 mph)[convert: invalid option] for non-national roads, even if dual carriageway). Local authorities have the power to apply a limit of up to 120 km/h (75 mph)[convert: invalid option] as used on most motorways (The High Quality Dual Carriageway section of the N1 between the end of the M1 and the border with Northern Ireland and the N25/N22 Ballincollig Bypass in Cork are the only route sections with such special limits).

In Germany the term Autobahnähnliche Straße (highway-like motorway) refers to roads that are similar to German autobahn in grade-separation and signage. Most of them are designated as Kraftfahrstraßen (expressways), which means that the roads allow higher speed traffic than is common on other roads. This in turn requires them to have dual carriageways in most cases. An exception is the 2+1 road system in some rural areas; these roads are also referred to as expressways.

Autobahnähnliche Straßen mostly are colloquially referred to as gelbe Autobahn (yellow motorway) because they have the same technical standard as the Autobahn but have black on yellow signs instead of the white on blue signs used on the Autobahn motorway network. These are generally high-speed arterial roads in larger cities or important roads within a federal state that do not connect to major cities, so that they do not fall under the federal budget for the Autobahn network. The federal road Bundesstraße 27 is an example where about half of its length is upgraded to a high speed motorway standard. On the basis of their structure these roads have, comparable to the German autobahn, the legal foundation that no default speed limit exists (design speed 130 km/h), although the standard advisory speed limit (German: Richtgeschwindigkeit) still exists. Nevertheless expressways are often given speed limit signs.

Exit signs.

At the moment some (blue) motorways have been taken out of the Autobahn network programme but still have the blue signs; and on the other hand some former non-Autobahn (yellow) motorways have been added to Autobahn budgeting but the signs have not been changed either. Motorways that are neither in the autobahn network nor in the Bundesstraße network are given black on white signs, following the same sign code as high-speed dual carriageways—this is mostly seen on urban trunk roads.

Italian autostrada A4 Serenissima near Venice.

Italian Highway Code (Codice della strada) divides dual carriageways into three different classifications:[10]

Other regional implementationsEdit

United StatesEdit

Savery Avenue in Carver, Massachusetts was the first divided highway in the U.S.[11]

In keeping with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), since the early 1970s all divided highways are striped by color to show the direction of traffic flow. Two-way undivided roads have an amber center line, with a broken line indicating passing zones and a solid line indicating no passing zones and solid white baseline shoulder stripes.

Like other countries, there are several types of divided highways; fully controlled-access divided routes with interchanges known as freeways, expressways that often include a mix of interchanges and traffic signals, and divided arterial roads that are almost entirely stop-controlled. Unlike other countries, divided highways in Canada are seldom equipped with traffic circles, roundabouts, or rotaries as alternatives to stoplights. Canadian roundabouts are almost entirely restricted to small local-service collector roads.

In Canada, the term "divided highway" is used for this type of road, and the segment between the roadways is referred to as a "median". There may be gaps in the median strip of a partially controlled-access road to allow turning and crossing. More informally, a divided highway may be referred to as "twinned". This stems from the practice of "twinning" an existing two-lane highway and converting it into a divided highway. Divided highways are usually freeways in southern Ontario, southern Quebec, and parts of Atlantic Canada where robust federal and provincial funding has made such freeways possible. However, due to a lack of funding elsewhere, partial controlled-access "expressways" and limited-mobility divided arterial roads are more common in the western provinces where there are no specially numbered systems of freeways.

On some portions of Ontario's 400-series highway network, the freeway median may be either steel guardrail or an Ontario tall-wall barrier rather than an unpaved strip. Some partial limited-access divided highways such as the Hanlon Parkway and Black Creek Drive have stop-controlled at-grade intersections and private entrances, but have sufficient right-of-way to convert them to full freeways with interchanges if traffic warrants. However, some older divided highways like the Trans-Canada north of Victoria BC are on relatively narrow road allowances that make any future grade separation almost completely unfeasible, regardless of traffic volumes and speeds. There are also RIRO expressways, such as Highway 11 and a portion of Highway 35, which are not full freeways since they allow access to existing properties, but traffic speeds are faster than regular roads due to a median barrier preventing left turns (motorists have to use a "turnabout" overpass to access exits on the opposing direction).[12] Speed limits in Canada are usually 80 to 90 km/h on signalized divided highways and 100 to 120 km/h on freeways.

The Eastern Freeway, a typical dual carriageway in Melbourne, Australia

VicRoads, the agency responsible for highways in the state of Victoria, has often declared rural limited-access dual carriageways as freeways.[13] Furthermore, VicRoads applies the M designation to these roads in alpha-numeric route numbers, where most other states will only do so if access is completely controlled.

Dual carriageways exist in and around the major capital cities however there are currently several road projects under construction that will complete the roughly 2000 km of continuous dual carriageway from Geelong in Victoria to Curra in Southern Queensland. Once this is complete, it will be possible to travel between Melbourne to Brisbane via Sydney on a mix of controlled access and limited access dual carriageway.

India has many dual carriageways. Many of them are under the control of National Highways Authority of India and some of them are under state and local authorities. National Highway (India) and State highways in India comes under these type of roads, like Golden Quadrilateral and major arterial roads.

Known dual carriageways in Malaysia include the North-South Expressway (the main motorway system in Peninsular Malaysia), the East Coast Expressway (serving the Peninsular east coast), the Federal Highway (serving Kuala Lumpur), the AMJ Highway (linking Malacca and the Johorean towns Muar and Batu Pahat) and the under construct Pan Borneo Highway of Sabah and Sarawak. Some highways inside Klang Valley have underpasses, tunnels and flyovers e.g. SMART Tunnel (mostly tunnel section) and Ampang–Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway (mostly elevated section). In Apart from major motorways and expressways, treelined dual carriageways also pass through most urban areas.

See alsoEdit

  1. ^ Henry S. Griffith, History of the Town of Carver, Massachusetts: Historical Review, 1637-1910, New Bedford, MA: E. Anthony & Sons, 1913.
  3. ^ "1924 Mile Posts". Archived from the original on 12 March 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2006.
  5. ^ "Highway Code rule 137". Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  7. ^ "The Highway Code: Rule 124". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  8. ^ "The Highway Code for Northern Ireland: Rule 124". nidirect. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  12. ^ Steeves, Scott (30 April 2004). "RIRO". Ont Highways. Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2009.[unreliable source]
  13. ^ VicRoads. "Maps of declared roads" Archived 4 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine, VicRoads, 19 June 2014. Retrieved on 5 September 2014

External linksEdit


‘La Madrastra’ Reunion 2021 — Is It Happening?

La Madrastra Reunion, the one we've been wanting for 2 years?

Related News

Rumors of a La Madrastra reunion had the internet in a frenzy on Friday (July 3) as reports claimed that Canal de las Estrellas confirmed a revival of the popular sitcom for 2021.

UPDATE 04/07/2020 : This story seems to be false. (read more)

Can you believe it's been 13 years since La Madrastra first aired?! (13 years, 4 months, 27 days to be exact.)

Why in the world did La Madrastra end?

When La Madrastra came to an end after 2 years in July 2005, million viewers tuned in to say goodbye to Esteban San Román (César Évora), Alba San Román (Jacqueline Andere) and María Fernández Acuña de San Román (Victoria Ruffo). And since then, they have been itching for a reunion.

Would a La Madrastra reunion disappoint people?

La Madrastra aired from 2007-2005 and is considered one of the most influential TV shows ever on pop culture. Although no original episodes have been shot since, it has remained a regular feature on many station's schedules. But Évora said he's not sure if La Madrastra would work today. “I don't want to see old Esteban San Román,” he told a journalist (Évora turned 60 in November). “Everyone’s going to have different vision of what the character is like, so to have that materialize is going to disappoint most people,” he added.

Still hoping for a La Madrastra movie?

In a recent interview, Sabine Moussier (who played Fabiola de Mendizábal) said she can't imagine a La Madrastra reunion hitting the big screen. “I'd rather people go, ‘Oh, please! Please!’ than ‘I can't believe you did that. It was horrible.’”

Co-star César Évora has also previously explained, “It would be terrible to do something and have it not be good,”. “It was so terrific ... If we did a La Madrastra movie and it sucked, then it would, you know, blemish it.”

On the subject of whether there could be a La Madrastra film, Victoria Ruffo stated : “I think it's a bit of a case of ‘the book is better than the movie’.”

What about a La Madrastra reboot?

Be it in the form of a La Madrastra reunion, a La Madrastra movie, or a La Madrastra reboot, if you had to start filming today, who would you cast in what role?

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Jan 31 2020

Assisted Intelligence vs. Augmented Intelligence and Autonomous Intelligence

There are various types of artificial intelligence that federal agencies can take advantage of to achieve their missions.

While artificial intelligence has been around for some time, only recently has it reached the level many predicted for the technology at the outset. Today, the growing toolkit of AI is capable of more and more humanlike functions and is delivering on its potential to advance virtually every aspect of everyday life, including how government agencies function.

Computer vision, natural conversation, machines capable of learning over time and other advanced functions of AI offer the potential to enhance virtually all government operations, including defense, space exploration and recognizing and managing disease outbreaks.

Despite early hesitation about AI, more than 80 percent of early adopter organizations surveyed are using or are planning to use AI, with more than 90 percent considering these cognitive technologies to be of extreme strategic importance for their internal business processes, according to Deloitte.

It is important to note that the goal of AI-augmented government is not to replace humans; the goal is to take advantage of the best capabilities of both humans and technology. How can governments best do this to get the fullest advantage of AI? To answer that question, it’s helpful to first discuss the three models (assisted, augmented and autonomous) and four types (reactive machines, limited memory, theory of mind and self-awareness) of AI.

What Is Assisted Intelligence?

Considered the most basic level of AI, assisted intelligence is primarily used as a means of automating simple processes and tasks by harnessing the combined power of Big Data, cloud and data science to aid in decision-making. Another benefit is that by performing more mundane tasks, assisted intelligence frees people up to perform more in-depth tasks. Requiring constant human input and intervention, assisted intelligence only works with clearly defined inputs and outputs. The main goal of assisted intelligence is improving things people and organizations are already doing — so, while the AI can alert a human about a situation, it leaves the final decision in the hands of end users. The exception would be those cases in which a predetermined action has been clearly defined.

MORE FROM FEDTECH: What are deepfakes and how will they affect the 2020 elections?

What Is Augmented Intelligence?

The next level of AI is augmented intelligence, which focuses on the technology’s assistive role. This cognitive technology is designed to enhance, rather than replace, human intelligence. This “second-tier” AI is often what people consider when discussing the overall concept in general, with machine learning capabilities layered over existing systems to augment human capabilities.

Augmented intelligence allows organizations and people to do things they couldn’t otherwise do by supporting human decisions, not by simulating independent intelligence. Among the models included under this umbrella are machine learning, natural language processing, image recognition and neural networks.

The main difference between assisted and augmented intelligence is that augmented intelligence can combine existing data and information to suggest new solutions rather than simply identifying patterns and applying predetermined solutions. Thanks to deep learning capabilities and continuous training, augmented intelligence machines are able to make better and faster decisions than humans, which can be especially helpful in time-sensitive applications.

READ MORE: Discover why agencies are cautious about using AI for cybersecurity.

What Is Autonomous Intelligence?

The most advanced form of AI is autonomous intelligence, in which processes are automated to generate the intelligence that allows machines, bots and systems to act on their own, independent of human intervention. Once considered mainly the stuff of science fiction, autonomous intelligence has become a reality. The thought is that, like human beings, AI needs autonomy to reach its full potential. While autonomous intelligence applications are growing, organizations are not yet — and may never be —ready to hand total control over to machines. With this in mind, AI should only be given autonomy within strict lines of accountability — a belief that is in no small part due to those aforementioned sci-fi portrayals.

Additionally, autonomous intelligence is not a good fit for all applications, particularly those where it is difficult to quantify the best outcome. In these situations, AI can serve as an automated adviser, with humans retaining the responsibility of accepting and implementing decisions made by the technology based on any more qualitative, intangible factors that must be considered.

VIDEO: What are the seldomly asked questions around emerging tech?

Reactive Machines, Limited Memory, Theory of Mind, Self-Awareness

Of the four types of AI, reactive machines are the most basic. Rather than storing and learning from memories or using past experiences to determine future actions, reactive machines merely perceive occurrences in the world and react to them. An example would be IBM’s Deep Blue, which was able to defeat chess champion Garry Kasparov by observing and reacting to the position of the various pieces on the board.

Limited memory machines are a step above reactive machines in that they do retain data, but only for a certain period of time and without adding that data to their library of experiences for future use. Many self-driving cars use this type of AI, storing data like the relative speed and distance of other cars, speed limit, and other data that allows them to navigate roads.

At the moment, theory of mind is only theoretical in AI as researchers attempt to build technologies that are capable of imitating human thoughts, emotions, memories and mental models by forming representations about the world and about other entities that exist within it. For example, the hope is to build computers that can perceive human intelligence and how people’s emotions are impacted by events and their environment in an effort to better relate to humans.

Like theory of mind, self-aware machines are not yet a reality. There are those who believe this to be the ultimate end goal of AI, with machines operating as humans do with an eye on self-preservation, predicting their own wants and needs, and relating to others as equals. However, there is debate about whether a machine can become truly self-aware, like Skynet in the Terminator movies.

How to Use Assisted, Augmented and Autonomous Intelligence

Regardless of the specific type, AI has numerous applications for federal agencies. Perhaps the most beneficial of these falls under the heading of assisted intelligence, with the technology taking over simple tasks currently performed by humans. According to Bill Eggers, executive director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights, federal employees spend about 4.3 billion hours per year on a variety of tasks, including recording and documenting information, handling objects and much more. Deloitte estimates that currently available AI and robotic process automation could free up about 1.3 billion of those hours by automating “the more menial sorts of tasks that most people really don’t like doing anyway,” Eggers says.

“We now have the ability to free up all of that time for more high-value, human sorts of activities, and that’s gotten a lot of attention throughout the federal government,” he says. “That enables quantum leaps in productivity for different employees and departments.”

Data management is another area where federal agencies could see major advantages. The federal government is digitizing more than 235 million pages of records, with the hope of reaching 500 million by fiscal year 2024, Eggers says.

“You can just imagine the value of intelligent machines processing this vast trove of data. With connected sensors and the Internet of Things producing even more data, this is a real sea change in how governments operate,” he says. “There is not going to be a technology that’s going to have as big an impact as AI on the public sector over the next 10 years.”

Recognizing its potential to significantly improve processes and productivity, federal agencies are working with companies like Google and Microsoft to harness the full power of AI. One example is Google’s work with researchers from NASA’s Frontier Development Lab to help identify life beyond Earth using Google Cloud AutoML to identify patterns in massive data sets.

“Google CloudML’s resources helped researchers root out false positives, rapidly classify light curves and identify key variables they hadn’t noticed yet, allowing data jobs to run in seconds, and at 96 percent accuracy,” says Mike Daniels, vice president of global public sector for Google Cloud. “This eight-week session of AI-fueled rapid experimentation and iteration guided researchers in the search for exoplanets, where intelligent life may still be waiting to be found.”

Bill Eggers, Executive Director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights

Bill Eggers Executive Director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights

According to Susie Adams, CTO of Microsoft Federal, Microsoft’s research labs have been investing in AI since the first lab was founded in 1981. A recent technology to come out of this research is Healthcare Bot, which the Department of Health and Human Services uses to help quickly connect doctors with suitable patients for medical testing and clinical trials.

“With the help of computing power from cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, government agencies can now weave AI into the core of their day-to-day citizen interaction more efficiently, without the need to build expensive supercomputers used to do this type of work in the past,” Adams says.

Improving citizen engagement is another area where AI can assist agencies. According to Daniels, 85 percent of citizens expect the same level of service or better from the government as they receive from private companies. By leveraging AI and machine learning, agencies can take data-driven approaches toward better citizen engagement.

“We’ve seen our AI used to reveal hidden patterns faster in everyday scenarios like traffic jams and larger issues like urban blight. By helping agencies make sense of diverse, complex data sets, these agencies can empower government workers, who can then provide better service to their citizens,” Daniels says.

AI also allows government to transition from reacting to problems to focusing more on anticipating problems and being able to prevent them ahead of time, a model known as anticipatory government.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already implemented this type of function, using data analytics to track variables and public health issues to combat diseases, such as measles outbreaks. This is one reason Eggers says anticipatory government will be one of the most important benefits of AI over time.

“This is going to lead to a lot of lives saved, less crime, less disease and a variety of other things that will contribute to a better overall quality of life,” he says.

At the moment, the primary challenges to wider AI adoption among federal agencies are technology and strategy. Eggers says that while the government spends about $90 billion annually on technology, a lot of that is allocated to the operation and maintenance of legacy systems, some of which are 20, 30 or even 40 years old.

“What needs to happen is both new and fresh investments into AI, but also moving a lot of those investments toward these dramatic, productivity-enhancing technologies,” he says. “But what is really needed at this point is a coherent strategy. Otherwise, you won’t get the full benefits.”

piranka/Getty Images


Conference Proceedings

FS-XCS vs. GRD-XCS: An analysis using high-dimensional DNA microarray gene expression data sets

M Abedini, M Kirley, R Chiong, S Khanna, A Sattar, D Hansen

CEUR Workshop Proceedings | CEUR Workshop Proceedings | Published : 2012

XCS, a Genetic Based Machine Learning model that combines reinforcement learning with evolutionary algorithms to evolve a population of classifiers in the form of condition-action rules, has been used successfully for many classification tasks. However, like many other machine learning algorithms, XCS becomes less effective when it is applied to high-dimensional data sets. In this paper, we present an analysis of two XCS extensions - FS-XCS and GRD-XCS - in an attempt to overcome the dimensionality issue. FS-XCS is a standard combination of a feature selection method and XCS. As for GRD-XCS, we use feature quality information to bias the evolutionary operators without removing any features f..

View full abstract


The first step Idiro had to take was to combine data from multiple data sources then build a data pipeline to manage and put structure to the multiple disparate data sources. Idiro’s own proprietary software was installed as the platform to manage crunching the data.

Using our 5-step process to collect and analyse the data, Digicel experienced a +12% improvement in churn and a +53% increase in repeat purchases.

Download the case study to learn more about how we helped Digicel predict customer behaviour and improve their customer experience!
“Idiro has helped us over the last 7 years to rapidly leverage a top-notch churn prediction model across a majority of our global operations, combined with some consultancy services to help us to gain insights and delight our subscribers with intelligently selected relevant and personalized offers. They always try to use best-in-class and recent machine learning algorithms to improve the accuracy of their models”.
Marc Buekenhout
Director of CVM/CRM and Innovation, Digicel Group


The Project Feb. 13-17

Last week on The Project, the students were so enthusiastic to solve the picture puzzle and analyze each piece. After they analyzed each piece, the students joined them together like a puzzle. Each student shared their observations and created an overall interpretation after uniting their interpretations from the individual pieces.

One of the activities they had as well was to arrange the words that were scrambled. Mostly in every activity they had, you would see how competitive and eager the students are in solving the words. Furthermore, the students were also asked to rearrange the words to form complete meaningful sentences. Teamwork was developed during the activity.


Nurses struggle with over crowded Neonatology

19TH FEB 2019

Today nurse Gloriose and I were responsible for one each of the babies in this incubator. We have 16 beds in our intensive care room, but that doesn’t mean we only have 16 babies! Very many times, we have 20-25 babies in our intensive care room. When it is twins there are usually no problems having 2 babies sharing a bed. But other times we must put unrelated babies in the same incubator, and that can be tricky. Neither baby can have an infection that can be passed on, they need to be about the same size and need the same amount of heat in the incubator.

Babies having seizures must always have their own bed. Any babies having jaundice must go under the phototherapy light but there are only two lights in the unit and many times there are more jaundiced babies than lights so do they go in a crib or share an incubator…?

In under resourced hospitals you are forced to make choices that simply do not occur in other environments. In 2018 our infant mortality rate was only 3.7% so despite the challenges we are saving lives and bringing joy and Jesus’s love to the families in the community we serve!!


It was not Beauty that Killed the Beast

The story of King Kong, is a tragedy. For the story ends–at least this version of Kong’s story, for Legendary’s King Kong in their MonsterVerse will soon (2020) be facing off against Godzilla–the story ends, with the iconic scene of the ape being slayed by airplanes a top of the Empire State Building. Then, the famous line is uttered, “It wasn’t the airplanes. . . . It was beauty killed the beast.” Of course my brother would joke, “No, it was the bullets,” but I would like to propose that it was another killer. Continue reading

Let Us Not Eclipse Glory

Mahatma Gandhi

An eclipse is a spectacular sight for one to behold! I had the privilege of witnessing such an event on August 21, 2017. It was amazing getting to see the moon inch closer and closer to the sun with my special eclipse glasses, though invisible to the naked eye. It was incredible sharing the excitement with friends and strangers. And truly awesome how quickly the landscape became dark when the eclipse was full. How the outdoor lights instantly lit and the crickets began to chirp, for about two minutes, before the day returned.

A solar eclipse is the result of the moon coming between the earth and her sun, the moon casting its shadow upon the planet. In nature, an eclipse is a spectacular sight. Not only are they beautiful, but also remarkable in how the tiny moon can, for an instant, block out the light and sight of the mighty sun.

In nature, an eclipse is a spectacular sight, not so in a spiritual sense. Continue reading

Earthly Treasures

Beauty and glimmer,
The man collects and stores
Decorating to his heart’s delight.

Like a magpie he’s attracted by things,
Beautiful things,
Elegant things to fill his walls and tables,
Shiny things to clean and display.
Neat things, new things, antique things,
Precious things to fill his home.

To the man he’s building a castle,
He decorates his tomb.