new The gigaprojects then, along with the arts and heritage programmes, are part of a process that brings cultural change, while enforcing the political status quo. They are also happening because Prince Mohammed likes them. If The Line looks like a pharaonic ego trip, Dr Azzam also reports the prince’s interest in the AlUla masterplan, and in such subtler things as the palette of pigments made in the Madrasat Addeera out of multicoloured local rocks. Like many works dictated from above these projects have an erratic relationship to reality and consistency: while The Line verges on the unhinged, it’s also questionable whether five major works of land art plus several museums are best located in AlUla, whose small population and remote location will struggle to handle large visitor numbers. The profligate construction of the gigaprojects, and in some cases the dependency on planes and cars to get to places, will – despite Vision 2030’s claims of sustainability – have a huge and destructive environmental impact. — the Guardian, 15h ago

new It is up to this generation to heed the cry of peoples, the young and children, and to lay the foundations of a new multilateralism. Why not begin precisely from our common home? Climate change signals the need for political change. Let us emerge from the narrowness of self-interest and nationalism; these are approaches belonging to the past. Let us join in embracing an alternative vision: this will help to bring about an ecological conversion, for “there are no lasting changes without cultural changes” (Laudate Deum, 70). In this regard, I would assure you of the commitment and support of the Catholic Church, which is deeply engaged in the work of education and of encouraging participation by all, as well as in promoting sound lifestyles, since all are responsible and the contribution of each is fundamental. — Watts Up With That? • The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change, 21h ago

new It needs to be acknowledged at the outset that Sinophone perspectives have spawned one of the most prolific and diverse fields of relational IR approaches. A feature that binds these perspectives is their explicit indebtedness to Sinophone thought and ideas – especially, Confucianism or Daoism as well as the notions and practices either of tianxia or guanxi (or both) (Huang and Shih 2016; Ling 2014b; Pan and Kavalski 2018; Shih 2024). It has to be reiterated, that at least partially, this move has been motivated by the articulation of a “Chinese” school of IR intent on asserting the exceptionalism (and inherent superiority) of Chinese culture. As such, it is alleged that the recourse to vernacular cosmological traditions has been “marginal, selective, and even contradictory” and has led to fissures within Sinophone relational perspectives forcing some of them into “reproducing exclusion (rather than all-inclusiveness), hierarchy (rather than equity), and binary opposition (rather than interbeing or co-constitution)” (Lin and Chen 2020). Other scholars have pointed out that regardless of their ideational lineage, Sinophone relationalities are invariably embedded in a hierarchical structure of interactions (Kavalski 2023; Shimizu 2021). The roles available to actors are already presupposed prior to the dynamics of social interactions and, thus, “how to relate with others is inherited from past experiences and accumulated knowledge, and each actor is expected to follow the rules and norms drawn from the lessons” (Shimizu and Noro 2023, 384). In this respect, in lieu of the transformative potential of relational thinking, some Sinophone interlocutors appear to merely replace the substantialist structure of Westphalian actors with the substantialist structure of hierarchical roles. — E-International Relations, 1d ago

new I think the best way to deal with these turbo-charged political uses of history is, first, to acknowledge and study them in their local and comparative contexts and then, second, to try to use them for good. This involves recognising that political uses of history are not about history, they are about politics and identity. Ordinary people use narratives, or stories, about the past to explain who they are and how they see the world, not to enter into a debate on what did or didn’t happen. Since there will always be political actors trying to appeal to these stories, and identities, it is best to accept the emotive memory narrative and to try to use it for good. For example, a study of documentaries in Sweden and Germany on migration showed that they made considerable use of historical parallels to justify a pro-migrant stance following the 2015 migrant and refugee crisis. Invoking history, therefore, is not an inherently negative act or impulse towards ‘othering’. In fact, I increasingly think that it is only by counterposing different, nuanced, historical narratives, or different interpretations of history, to those invoked by populists on all sides, that it is possible to counter the emotional appeal of the more negative types of historical framing described in this book, as well as the attendant claims to authenticity and a higher sense of truth. It is important that the emotive power of historical language is not simply ceded to the demagogues. — E-International Relations, 1d ago

new ...“One of Dennett’s goals was to take philosophical ideas and make sure that people in neighbouring disciplines were thinking about them. He was particularly targeting psychologists but appealed to primatologists just as much. The notion was how we understand other people, and in particular, whether we adopt the ‘intentional stance’ – that is to say, whether we approach other people by assuming that they have minds, with beliefs, intentions, emotions, and desires. One of the problems with philosophy books is that only philosophers can understand them, but Dennett wrote a book that was very readable – he didn’t compromise the academic complexity of his subject, but he wanted to ensure that it was widely accessible. This book gave rise to a lot of the research that was carried out in developmental psychology into how children understand other people, and how they develop the capacity to ‘mind-read’. It certainly inspired my work in understanding children with autism. Why is it that they are not developing the capacity to mind-read, or developing the ‘intentional stance’?” Read more... — Five Books, 1d ago

new In this seminar, De Michele will present her recent book Anti-Southern Racism and Education in Post-War Italy (Routledge, 2023). This book investigates the racism against Southern Italian children attending North-Western primary schools between the 1950s and the 1970s. Turin serves as the main case study, having become the "third Southern city" after Naples and Palermo during the considered period.Far from being a new phenomenon, racism against Southern Italians gained renewed prominence in the context of the post-war mass internal migrations, becoming one of the pillars of the process of nation-rebuilding. However, in spite of its relevance, it has not received the attention it deserves.By drawing on a wide range of sources – printed, archival, photographic, and oral – and situating itself at the intersection of the history of racism, of education, of psychiatry, and of psychology, the book aims to fill this gap and to add to the debate on the borders that nation-states establish to control the access to power of the different groups inhabiting their territories. Its interdisciplinarity makes it suitable for students and researchers across a variety of subject areas.Grazia De Michele is a Knapp Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). She obtained her first PhD from the University of Reading (UK) in 2013. Recently, she successfully completed her second PhD at the University of Genoa (Italy). De Michele is a member of the Centre for the History of Racism and Anti-Racism in Modern Italy (CENTRA). — School of Advanced Study, 1d ago

new Doraemon embodies a specific fantasy about AI. Distinct from reparative visions of technology designed to mediate or cure impairments for people with disability, workshop participants uniformly envisioned care robots that would effectively replicate and amplify the role of a human companion, providing practical embodied care, emotional nurturing, and behavioral surveillance and control. This vision of an AI-driven disability-care future is specific to caregivers and does not necessarily reflect the perspective of persons with disabilities themselves. Yet it also highlights the distance between fantasy and the everyday experience of technology in contexts of care, which often feature obstructive devices, complex electronic forms and apps, and streaming entertainment. This crosses over even to the vibe of much consumer-oriented AI: corporatized soft-selling avatars and generic chatbots that assume a neurotypical Western human subject. This imagined AI is instead grounded, domestic, whimsical, protective, and ultimately sympathetic. It has independent agency but expresses it through attachment to a single individual and their world. — Montreal AI Ethics Institute, 1d ago

new Joseph Ganci was honored as one of the '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading in the 2017 Book Awards. 'Gideon: The Sound and the Glory' has received rave reviews from readers and reviewers alike. A recent reviewer stated, "Joseph Ganci's prose is arresting, peppered with fantastic imagery and succinct descriptions of plot, characters, and setting. The themes rise to a masterful recreation. They are woven into the story to allow the reader to enjoy its inspiration and the accompanying action. The book explores powerful spiritual and political themes, capturing the conflicts and dynamics of life within the community of God's chosen people. Gideon: The Sound and the Glory will appeal to fans of political thrillers, adventure, and conflict-driven stories laced with intense action." Other reviewers have used phrases such as "riveting," "amazing," "deftly crafted," and "highly recommended."... — 24-7 Press Release Newswire, 1d ago

new ...deTour 2023 is presented by PMQ and sponsored by Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This 10-day grand design festival will present various programmes for the art and design communities both in and outside Hong Kong. These programmes include creative installations and exhibitions, workshops, design dialogues, movie screenings, guided tours, and many more. 10 years of deTour at PMQ Started in 2014, PMQ's deTour celebrates the 10th anniversary this year. A unique theme has been assigned to each edition of deTour to explore how design could solve social problems and improve our lives. To commemorate this journey, a 10-year retrospect exhibition will be featured in this year's deign festival to look back on the highlighted exhibits and behind-the-scenes of the past decade of PMQ's deTour. This part of the exhibition will be held during the same period as deTour 2023 Design Festival at PMQ and admission is free, as everyone is invited to witness the road to success of deTour, as the contribution of PMQ and deTour in pushing forward the development of the local design industry. The theme of deTour 2023 – "New Know How" – the Interweaving of "Craft", "Design" and "Technology" Working around "New Know How" as the theme, deTour 2023 aims to pave the road to craft design future which takes off with appreciation of traditional craftsmanship. When working, craftsmen are laser focused, highly precise and people oriented, and these qualities are collectively deemed as the "spirit of craftsmanship", which are also regarded as "Know How". Curators of deTour 2023 stated that "this valuable artisanship ought to be applied to different industries. It, together with design thinking and advanced technology, will help take each industry to a new level. By achieving this, problems can be solved more effectively, and through analysing obstacles from a new angle and perhaps trying solutions with new materials and techniques, new creations that are more thoughtful might be possible – this is what we meant by 'New Know How'." Through this design festival, curators hope to bring the industries to re-appreciate traditional crafts from a new angle and make good use of "New Know How" in different sectors. Three Exhibition Areas with 20 International and Local Works The exhibition of deTour 2023 Design Festival is divided into three parts: International Collaboration, Feature Exhibitions and Selected Entries, which are curated under the five specific directions of New Value, Storytelling, Craft Enhancement, Innovation and Heritage. Scattered all over the PMQ premises, 20 design works from the Nethelands, Japan and local designers are open to the public for free appreciation. . In addition, over the 10 days of the design festival, there will be a fruitful programme of a total of 40 workshops, 12 design dialogues and sessions of documentary screening of "Food and Design". International Collaboration: Craft by Nature by Biobased Creations (The Netherlands) deTour 2023's International Collaboration has invited Biobased Creations from the Netherlands, which is a creative studio formed by a group of designers, researchers and artists who aim to encourage the use of biomaterials - also known as renewable eco resources - in daily lives, so as to evolve our world into a regenerative and circular one. Biobased Creations presents Craft by Nature which is an exhibit specially designed for deTour 2023. Shaped like a house, the exhibit allows visitors to find multiple designs made from biobased materials such as furniture, clothes, shoes and socks, and household items. All of these designs are eco-friendly, light in weight and with a minimalistic design, created by designers from Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Outside the house in the garden, visitors can see the "originals" of the materials used in the designs, including common reed, silvergrass and shells, something that we are familiar with. Other than that, Biobased Creations will also display 40 biomaterials that can be applied in architecture and heat insulation, and visitors are welcome to hold and feel these materials and scan the QR code to instantly learn how these biomaterials are made. Craft by Nature is an innovative installation demonstrating how materials that are ignored or abandoned can be transformed into chic designs, and this allows us to rethink our relationship with the nature and invites us to take one more step forward to make our world better. Feature Exhibitions: Exploring traditional crafts with a fresh eye... — SME Business Daily Media, 1d ago

new One of the features in the development of pragmatism is that pragmatists are constantly faced with the challenge of taking science seriously, but not losing sight of evaluative questions, moral questions, social and political questions. We saw that driving James’s pragmatism was the need to reconcile science and values in a very broad sense. We saw that Dewey thinks that the values, in effect, start the whole thing, that’s how you keep them reconciled: you start with the social, the political, the normative. Quine has only one essay about values and it’s very short. His work is all about philosophy of science, philosophy of logic, epistemology and philosophy of language, and that sort of thing. Misak is a very interesting figure in this very long story of pragmatism. She publishes Truth, Politics and Morality in 2000 and it’s a return to Peircean pragmatism for the purpose of getting democratic theory right. Peirce himself, like Quine, wrote almost nothing about values. He certainly wrote nothing about politics, philosophically. In letters that we have where Peirce does talk about politics he says very unfortunate things about slavery, about women, and about democracy. So it’s a strange return to Peirce for the repurpose of moral and political philosophy. Here’s the nub of the book: We talked earlier about Peirce’s conception of meaning and the pragmatist’s maxim, the idea that epistemology is about conduct. That’s the core, the germ of the thought that Misak is developing here. As it turns out, Peirce thought a very funny thing about truth that Misak is reviving and, in a way, trying to clarify. Peirce thought that “truth is what an ideal community of enquirers is fated to believe.” In other words, he thinks that the truth is the ideal end point of enquiry, what we will come to believe if we continue enquiring. It’s called the “end of enquiry” conception of truth and, like James, Peirce articulates this thought in a lot of unfortunate ways. It seems an odd thought and you might think it gets the explanatory relation backwards. You might say, “No, no wait a minute! It’s the truth of the proposition that explains the convergence of opinion in the course of enquiry. It’s not the convergence of opinion in the course of enquiry that explains the truth.” Misak gives, I think, a much more promising gloss on that thought. She’s saying: this is how Peirce should have expressed it, this is what Peirce really means. Peirce thinks, like a good pragmatist, that if you’re interested in understanding a philosophical concept, we’ve got to draw out its implications for human practice. Peirce thinks that what we are doing when we are attributing truth to a particular belief is we are affirming, “Nigel, go and enquire — you’ll come to agree with me.” Or, “If we keep looking at reasons and keep challenging this thought, it’s going to stand up to the challenges. It’s almost a [John Stuart] Millian idea, that what we are doing with truth talk is making a prediction about the ability of a particular belief to which we attribute truth to withstand philosophical scrutiny and answer objections. — Five Books, 2d ago

new In my book Why? I focus on the work of the great philosopher of religion Richard Swinburne in responding to the problem of evil. Swinburne argues that there are goods that exist in our universe that would not exist in one with less suffering. If we just lived in some kind of Disneyland-esque world with no danger or risk, then there would be no opportunities to show real courage in the face of adversity, or to feel deep compassion for those who suffer. The absence of such serious moral choices would be a great cost, according to Swinburne. — Aeon, 1d ago

new But we would be less than honest, we would be sanctimonious, if we were to pretend that such immorality existed only in the relationship between politicians and populace. We the people are not innocent. Collectively sailing far from the ocean of integrity, in the way we relate with each other, promises are spoken and promises are broken. Promises are made that cancel out each other. I make a promise to you which I do not intend to keep, because I know I cannot keep it. But I make the promise to get a job or a contract. And, faithful to the logic of cunny man die cunny man bury am, you too make a promise to me which you do not intend to keep, and we joyfully announce our done deal, a deal that is just a bad card. Our yes is no, and our no is yes. Such is the conduct of godfathers and godsons on the precarious terrain of Nigerian politics. And where parties make promises to each other which neither intends to keep, an altercation will ensue that might require the intervention of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force. Many times have we strayed from the path of justice, and we satisfied to have so strayed, until we get caught and hurt. — The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News, 1d ago

new This is a highly regarded book, though in terms of the standard free will literature, it’s very different in its approach. Unlike some of the other books I’ve mentioned, it’s not an easy book to read. There’s no simple position or model that Williams is interested in articulating. It’s a book that’s focused on ancient Greek conceptions of agency and responsibility. Not only is he interested in the contrast between the ancient Greeks and us, but he’s also interested in the difference between the Greek tragedians — Sophocles, Aeschylus and Homer — on the one hand, and Socrates, Plato and Aristotle on the other, thinkers who are really the founders of the western philosophical tradition. What’s interesting about this book is that it’s not just about free will, it’s also about our views concerning the nature of philosophy. Williams argues that methodologically, philosophers need to be historically sensitive and informed, and that typically they aren’t. That’s a problem with many discussions about free will, there is a lack of historical self-consciousness. One of the great merits of Williams’s book is that he is, among other things, a distinguished scholar of classical literature. Not only is he open to the possibility of learning from history, he also thinks we can learn from literature, and from tragedy in particular. So it’s a very interesting and challenging book. — Five Books, 2d ago

new My research interests are varied and I tend not to espouse a specific research agenda because of the diverse nature of our doctoral programs relative to the size of our college. Examples of doctoral research studies I have guided include the following: MATHEMATICS EDUCATION: (1) Examining the effect on student achievement and attitudes of graphing utilities in college algebra courses taught at two-year colleges; (2) Exploring the influence instructional use of calculators in elementary grades has on student performance on the mathematics component of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT); (3) Applying a conceptual change model, commonly used to assess students' misconceptions of key science concepts to community college mathematics teachers misconceptions of how students learn mathematics; (4) Examining the spacing effect theory (i.e., how variations in the frequency and timing of instruction affect student learning) with respect to 3-, 2-, and 1-day per week schedules in college algebra. SCIENCE EDUCATION: (1) Examining the effect of biology-based virtual and physical field trips relative to students' science achievement and attitudes; (2) Examining the effect of conceptually-based instructional strategies on science achievement and attitudes of community college students in first-semester general biology, microbiology, and human anatomy and physiology courses; (3) Investigating the direct and indirect effects of teacher attributes, classroom attributes, and instructional strategies on Namibian junior secondary school teachers' locus of control, self-efficacy, and attitudes toward desertification; (4) Investigating the effect of student- and teacher-centered instructional strategies with and without conceptual advocacy on ninth-grade biology students' misconceptions, biology achievement, attitudes toward science, and cognitive retention of scientific method and measurement, spontaneous generation, and characteristics of living things. COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION: (1) Examining the effects of a computer-based feedback and assessment environment on Taiwanese students' English language acquisition; (2) Examining the effect of a classroom restructuring involving the introductory course in computer science (CS 1); (3) Examining the perception of control relative to Taiwanese students’ affective domain (locus of control, self-efficacy, test anxiety) in three different types of testing environments: computer-based (CBT), pseudo computerized-adaptive (pseudo-CAT), and pseudo self-adaptive (pseudo-SAT). AVIATION SCIENCE EDUCATION: (1) Developing a causal model to help explain and predict the relationships among various attributes of airport executives that lead to a career in airport management. AVIATION SCIENCES: (1) Identifying factors that contributed to certified flight instructors (CFIs) becoming complacent, which could then be manifested as a lack of or reduced vigilance. (2) Identifying factors related to hazardous events that were precursors to runway incursions classified as pilot deviations. (3) Examining the relationship between factors affecting the aviation profession and the concept of aviation professionalism. (4) Examining the safety climate at targeted U.S. based aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities. (5) Examining the survival strategies of U.S. domestic airlines relative to their route exit/entry decision patterns and air fare competition dynamics. — fit.edu, 2d ago

new Blade Runner (1982),1 directed by Ridley Scott, is now such a cult classic that it’s easy to forget that the film was coolly received by the public and panned by the critics when it was released in 1982. Fortunately, Denis Villeneuve’s new version, Blade Runner 2049, is neither a remake nor a watered-down sequel, but first and foremost a tribute to a work that has influenced international cinema as well as our vision of the world. In the original, Harrison Ford, in sharp contrast to his role as Han Solo in the Star Wars movies of the same era, portrayed Rick Deckard, a cynical detective in the style of a 1940s crime thriller, a none too fine example of humanity who turns out to be considerably shadier than the “replicants”—the androids, powerful and dangerous rebels, that he is assigned to eliminate. Blade Runner invented the esthetic of 20th-century terrestrial science fiction. Its specific texture and style, a blend of neo-noir and special effects set in a baroque and futuristic cityscape of skyscrapers, flying cars and misshapen creatures, has been imitated countless times. This society of the future, very much alive but gloomy and ravaged, due to declining population, violence and poverty, is our own. Preceding the post-apocalyptic world featured in so many fictional depictions of the 21st century, Blade Runner symbolized the pre-apocalypse and humanity under threat. — CNRS News, 2d ago

new Dr. Durrance has an interdisciplinary research and education program in long-term human space exploration. The hazards associated with long-term exposure to the space environment, such as radiation damage and the loss of bone mass, are not sufficiently understood to determine whether they pose acceptable risks or not. Research focused on these hazards is critical to sustained human presence outside the protective environment of the Earth ’s atmosphere and magnetosphere. This program uses the Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLS Lab) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC); as well as labs at Florida Tech.Lunar dust physics: Enabling technologies must be developed, including systems to mitigate the damaging effects of dust contamination; technologies that use the local planetary resources to produce consumables such as oxygen, water and rocket propellant; food production systems; innovative range technologies and many more. We are currently studying the induction charging characteristics of lunar dust.Bone Loss: The objectives of the bone project are (1) to provide a dynamic model of the structure and function of bone in response to loading with sufficient precision to predict the effect of any arbitrary loading history and (2) to develop and refine new countermeasures against bone loss.Radiation damage: Solar and galactic radiation is a major hazard to space crews during long-duration flights and planetary bases beyond the Earth ’s magnetic field. Intense solar flares can induce acute radiation sickness, galactic cosmic rays can kill brain cells that the body cannot replace, and all forms of radiation can induce cancer. The only known safety measure is shielding to prevent the high-speed particles from reaching the crew.Dr. Durrance is has an interdisciplinary research and education program in astrobiology addressing three fundamental questions: How does life begin and evolve? Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe? What is the future of life on Earth and beyond? Research addressing these questions is highly interdisciplinary involving fields such as physics, biology, chemistry, geology, and planetary science.Extrasolar Planets: Most of the newly discovered planets have been found using indirect techniques, where the planet ’s effect on light emitted from the parent star is detected, not the light emitted by the planet itself. The most likely technique for detecting life on these planets is a detailed analysis of their spectra; therefore, we are developing a system that may be able to detect IR emissions from exoplanets using large, ground-based telescopes along with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) techniques developed for radio astronomy.Amyloid Fiber Formation: We are pursuing research that may shed light on a fundamental question regarding the origin of life: how did the transition from non-living to living matter occur? We are investigating the spontaneous formation of long linear fibers from a weak solution of proteins using dielectric spectroscopy. This phenomenon may be important in neurodegenerative diseases and it may help to understand the emergence of ordered biological structures that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium.Dr. Durrance Director of the Sub-Orbital Research and Training Center that utilizes flights of high performance F-104 jets from the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at KSC. In addition to the testing of prototype spaceflight hardware for NASA and commercial companies, we are developing an imaging system designed specifically for imaging Earth ’s coastal regions. The coastal zone is not only the most significant ocean area in terms of productivity, economics, recreation, and natural resources but it is also the most difficult to image. — fit.edu, 2d ago

new An investigation by The Times last summer found a number of universities had withdrawn certain books from their course lists –  or made them optional –  due to “challenging” material. This includes the University of Essex, which permanently removed Colson’s Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad due to its depiction of slavery, and the University of Sussex, which withdrew from its curriculum August Strindberg’s play, Miss Julie, due to suicide themes. This is not an approach that Poole endorses: “One should err on the side of not banning things. Our general view as a profession is that it’s better for the reader to access material, but to be able to understand the basis on which that material is problematic. It’s about presenting it within a context.”... — The Independent, 2d ago

new Exhibit A is Amara’s law, named for scientist, researcher and former President of the Institute for the Future Roy Amara. He is best known for saying, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Boy howdy, does that ever apply to digital technologies in general and artificial intelligence specifically. AI may change the world — curing cancer, reversing climate change or taking all our jobs while creating a bunch more new ones — but mostly in the outbound years and decades. In the near term, it creates shadows for us to worry about, plan around and get distracted by even as we experiment and put it to work.In many respects, GenAI represents a victory lap for Moore’s law, based on Intel co-founder Gordon Moore’s formulation about the exponential growth of computational prowess. Originally coined in 1965 around the doubling of transistors on microchips every couple of years, it bumped up against the physical limits of silicon-based technologies. As AI models grow massively in size, from millions to billions and even trillions of parameters, the underlying hardware continues to keep pace even as margins narrow. Chip maker Nvidia, with its combination of advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) and tensor processing units (TPUs) that are optimized for AI tasks, reaches beyond transistor density in pushing the upward limits in the exponential increase in computational power.Not far behind, but perhaps in a supporting role, is Metcalfe’s law. Named for Ethernet inventor Robert Metcalfe, it suggests that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its users. When the campaign for digital government was young, broadband penetration reached 51 percent — giving advocates the opportunity to claim that government could then serve a “digital majority.” As of last year, that number has reached 90 percent. The stakes are high for the remaining 10 percent, often characterized as underserved communities including low-income and racialized populations along with people who have chosen not to engage in a connected world. By extension of Metcalfe’s law, more user interactions contribute to AI’s knowledge, which relies on iterative feedback for fine-tuning and improvement. The absence of marginalized voices is deafening to generative models. They cannot be trained with what isn’t there, increasing the risk of unconscious bias and the skewing of results. — GovTech, 2d ago

new The ceasefire between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip that began last Saturday was canceled by the IDF, which claimed Hamas had broken the truce by firing on Israeli troops. The ceasefire had been called after more than six weeks of intense IDF attack on Gaza and what Israel described as a “complete siege” of the small territory, leading to acute shortages of food, water, medicine, fuel, and other basic necessities.Several dozen prisoners were released by both sides during the “humanitarian pause,” which also saw much-needed aid begin to enter the densely-populated enclave that is home to more than 2.2 million people, more than half of whom have been forced from their homes by the IDF assault.Dr. Ramzy Baroud, an author, editor of the Palestine Chronicle, and senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs, told Radio Sputnik’s The Backstory on Thursday that Israeli policy has always been based on negating Palestine and Palestinians as a concept, allowing the justification of any and every action against the Palestinian people.Baroud said that Israel’s assault on Gaza was totally unprecedented, even in terms of its past brutalities, including the 1948 “Nakba” or “catastrophe,” when 700,000 Palestinians were forced out of the land that became Israel and 15,000 were killed.“But even for that generation, this is completely unprecedented. I don't think we've ever seen anything like this, even during the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1947-48. Yes, we have seen massacres, but we haven't seen a situation in which you have 2.3 million people placed within a confined area, surrounded by the navy, by a military, by tanks, by drones, by all the best American air defense is able to offer. And they are being targeted randomly, with no warnings, including schools, hospitals, homes - anything that you can possibly imagine. There is no safe zone. And then with time, a process of starvation began occurring.”“Fifteen thousand people are dead so far, 7,000+ are wounded. If you are missing under the rubble, most likely dead. If you combine these two numbers by themselves - forget about the wounded and forget about everybody else - that's about 1% of the entire population of Gaza that’s been killed. One percent. More bodies are being recovered, nearly 40,000 people wounded, the World Food Program is saying that 2.2 million of Gaza's population are in urgent need for food. They have no food. Gaza's entire population is anywhere between 2.2 to 2.3 million. It means that pretty much everybody in Gaza has no food and no clean water,” Baroud explained.“So this is completely unprecedented. And yet American politicians, officials are lining up with the same chorus every day: ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’. This is terrifying in the sense that Palestinians have shown clearly that they have no breaking and that they are willing to go to the very end to fight for their rights. But it doesn't seem like there is a moral breaking point for the Americans. I mean, this is the truth of it. If Israel has done all of this and destroyed 60% of all homes in Gaza, and the Americans haven't yet woken up to the idea that this is really bad and this needs to stop, it means that the Americans have no moral threshold that can't be crossed. And that is what's truly terrifying about all of this.”“And it’s not like any of this is new to the US,” Baroud said. “I mean, books, volumes written about it not only by Palestinian historians like myself, but also by Israeli historians, the likes of Ilan Pappe, for example. This process of dehumanization - recently, I wrote an article about the history of genocidal language in Israel. This has been going on for 75 years. When you fight an enemy and dehumanize that enemy at the same time, you create that mindset that when you are ready to completely get rid of that enemy, it doesn't register as an immoral act. This is why the Israelis, from the very, very beginning, for example, before Israel itself was established on the ruins of Palestine in 1948, for decades, they have created this narrative that Palestine is an empty land, it's a land of no people, that should be available for a people who have no land. So the entire infrastructure of Israel, moral infrastructure, was based on the assumption that the Palestinians do not exist.”“Now, why this is functional, and that's what I argued in the article, is because when the war started and the Israelis started trying to convince Egypt and Jordan, through American mediation, to accept millions of Palestinians who were going to be kicked out of Gaza and the West Bank, they immediately resorted to this idea that the only solution is to betray the Palestinians. That's where genocide becomes functional. Because it wasn't entirely surprising to anybody, because that's what they have been saying.”“In Israel they have a different term for it: they don't call it ethnic cleansing, they call it population transfer. It's a polite way of saying ‘kick all the Palestinians out of their own historic homeland in which they have been living for thousands of years’. And the Americans, not only were they not neutral about it and they did not say ‘no, back off, what is this nonsense, we are living in the 21st century, we can't be allowing this’. No, [US Secretary of State] Antony Blinken actually goes to Egypt and he offers Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian president, he offers him money in order for him to temporarily accept 1 million or 1.5 million Palestinian from Gaza.""And we know, I'm a Palestinian refugee myself, we know that the moment you cross the border out of Palestine, you are never allowed to go back. So basically, they wanted to create another Nakba, another population transfer, if you will, and Palestinians are not going to come back. So they're going to irritate the supposed peaceful existence of the state of Israel.”... — Sputnik International, 2d ago

new Henry Kissinger realized the setbacks this brought to American geopolitical achievements when he published his programmatic article “Reflections on American Diplomacy” in the October 1956 issue of Foreign Affairs. Evaluating the first decade of the Cold War, Kissinger argued that it had evolved from “an effort to build defensive barriers into a contest for the allegiance of humanity,” a contest the United States was losing. U.S. foreign policy had become too reactive and lacked strategic vision. “The paradoxical result is that we empiricists, appear to the world as rigid, unimaginative and even somewhat cynical, while the dogmatic Bolsheviks exhibit flexibility, daring and subtlety.” Because Soviet diplomacy pursued unlimited and open objectives, “the international debate is carried on almost entirely in the categories and at the pace established by the Soviets.” Moscow’s “flexible tactics and inflexible purpose” led to ideological and geopolitical victories across the globe. In other words, loosening the moralizing ideology would help the United States achieve its goals more efficiently and faster. For Kissinger, the mastery of diplomacy resided “in grasping the nuances of possibilities.” In the absence of “tragic experience” in its foreign policy, Kissinger argued, Washington is unused to operating in conditions that permit “only a choice among evils” and aims to achieve peace through a decisive event instead of maintaining it as “the expression of certain conditions and power relationships.” Kissinger saw the Metternichian, post-Napoleonic era as the gold standard of the art of diplomacy, with its emphasis on dialogue over moralizing and a commitment to transactional diplomacy as the guarantee of a successful balance of power equilibrium. — The National Interest, 2d ago

new The cautious yet optimistic adoption of these technologies by cities like Boston and states like New Jersey and California signals a significant shift in the public-sector landscape.The journey from skepticism to the beginnings of strategic implementation reflects a growing recognition of the transformative potential of AI for public good. From enhancing public engagement through sentiment analysis and accessibility to optimizing government operations and cybersecurity, generative AI is not just an auxiliary tool but a catalyst for a more efficient, inclusive and responsive government.However, this journey is not without its challenges. The need for transparent and accountable technologies, responsible usage, constant vigilance against potential misuse, and the importance of maintaining a human-centric approach in policymaking are reminders that technology is a tool to augment human capabilities, not replace them.With responsible experimentation and a commitment to continuous learning, governments can harness the power of generative AI to reshape how they deliver public services. The future of governance is being rewritten, and it's up to us to ensure that this story is one of progress, inclusivity and enhanced public welfare.Beth Simone Noveck is a professor at Northeastern University, where she directs the Burnes Center for Social Change and its partner projects, the GovLab and InnovateUS. She is core faculty at the Institute for Experiential AI. Beth also serves as chief innovation officer for the state of New Jersey. Beth’s work focuses on using AI to reimagine participatory democracy and strengthen governance, and she has spent her career helping institutions incorporate more participatory and open ways of working. — GovTech, 2d ago

new KAREN HAO: I wanna start by unpacking the word "safety" first. And I know we've sort of been talking about a lot of different words with squishy definitions, but safety is another one of those where AI safety as OpenAI defines it, is kind of different from what we would typically think around like engineering safety. You know, there, there have been other disciplines, you know, like when we talk about a bridge being safe, it means that it holds up and it works and it resists kind of collapsing under the weight of a normal volume of traffic or even like a massive volume of traffic. With AI safety, the brand of OpenAI's AI safety, they- it is more related to this, this kind of extreme risk they have. Again, they have started adopting more of this like also focusing on current harms like discrimination, but it is primarily focused on these extreme risks. So the question I guess to to kind of reiterate is sort of like will OpenAI continue to focus on research that is very heavily indexed on extreme risks? I think so, but how are they going to change the structure to make sure that these ideological clashes don't happen again? I don't actually think that's possible, and I also think that part of what we learned from this weekend is that we shouldn't actually be waiting for OpenAI to do something about this. There will always be ideological struggles again because of this fundamental problem that we have, which is that no one knows what AGI is, no one agrees with what it is. It's all a projection of your own ideology, your own beliefs and the AI research talent pool and the broader Silicon Valley talent pool of engineers, product managers, all of those people are also ideologically split on these kind of techno-optimist versus existential-risk divides. So the, even if you try to restructure or rehire or shuffle things around, you're always going to kind of get an encapsulation of this full range of ideological beliefs within the company, and you're going to end up with these battles because of disagreements around what is actually- what are we actually working on and how do we actually get there. So I personally think that one of the biggest lessons to take away is for policymakers and for other members of the general public and consumers to recognize that this company and this technology is very much made by people. It's very much the product of conscious decisions and, and an imprint of very specific ideologies. And if we actually want to facilitate a better future with better AI technologies and AI technologies that are also applied in better ways, and it's actually up to much more than OpenAI it's up to policymakers to regulate the company, it's up to consumers to make decisions that kind of financially pressure the company to continue moving towards directions that we collectively as a society believe are more appropriate. And ultimately what this boils down to is I think like AI is such an important technology and so consequential for everyone that it needs to have more democratic processes around its development and its governance. We can't really rely on a company or a board that is, you know, tiny to represent the interests of all of humanity. — Big Think, 2d ago

new The last is an aspect of Reagan’s career as president that Nau, unconvincingly, attempts to operationalize to build a case for Reagan as a leader who was able to play his cards correctly. Nau points out that the press of Reagan’s time built up concern over the late Cold War nuclear arms race, even while Reagan made his ultimate aim complete disarmament. It is the latter, not the former, that should disturb any student of Reagan’s legacy. The suicidality of Reagan’s hopes for disarmament in a nuclear world reflect the suicidality of Reagan’s administration more broadly. Like most of Reagan’s dedicated apologists, Nau believes that Reagan – in his worldview something akin to Thomas Carlyle’s Great Man of History – was the driving force between the favorable end of the Cold War. A more compelling argument holds that the Cold War ended favorably for the United States not because of Reagan’s toxic melange of dangerous incompetence and political sadism, but in spite of those reprehensible character traits. — Modern Diplomacy, 2d ago