{"id":26818,"date":"2019-05-15T17:47:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T21:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/?p=26818"},"modified":"2020-10-02T10:38:58","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T14:38:58","slug":"volume-22-number-10-5-15-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/volume-22-number-10-5-15-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Volume 22, Number 10 &#8211; 5\/15\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" width=\"575\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\" valign=\"top\" width=\"575\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/futuredition.org\/2019\/v22-10.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">View this email in your browser.<\/a><\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" width=\"575\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\">\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"577\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#1D4A8E\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\" valign=\"top\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/header.jpg\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\" valign=\"middle\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/spacer.gif\" \/>\u00a0Volume 22, Number 10 &#8211; 5\/15\/19\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/spacer.gif\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#\/FUTUREdition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/logo-twitter.jpg\" alt=\"Twitter\" \/><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/FuturEdition\/149602528442417?sk=wall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/logo-facebook.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook\" \/><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/johnlpetersen.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/wp-logo.png\" alt=\"JLP Blog\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"10\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"425\">\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transitiontalks.org\/resources.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/2014\/images\/banner380x150.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>FUTURE FACTS &#8211; FROM THINK LINKS<\/p>\n<p><i>DID YOU KNOW THAT&#8211;<\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Researchers have more proof that air pollution can contribute to dementia.<\/li>\n<li>The question of who\u2019s responsible when AI makes a mistake is lurking at the edge of nearly every industry dabbling in the technology.<\/li>\n<li>The ranks of farmers are gradually aging. The average age of U.S. farm operators was 57.5 years in 2017, up from 54.3 years in 1997.<\/li>\n<li>China, with some of the strictest drug enforcement policies in the world, is cashing in on the cannabis boom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>PUNCTUATIONS<br \/>\nby John L. Petersen<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large\"><b>Charles Eisenstein Coming to Transition Talks<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Charles Eisenstein is coming back to Berkeley Springs Transition Talks on the 15th of June. Every time he speaks I have folks who heard him thank me for inviting him to come and be with us.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a short video that features Charles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/3370315404\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/futuredition.org\/2019\/images\/eisenstein-video.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Charles will be talking about a new way to think about climate change and the significance that this epic, transforming event has for the evolution of the species and our personal development. I can assure you that you will find his ideas very engaging.<\/p>\n<p>You can find complete information on Charles and our upcoming event at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.transitiontalks.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TransitionTalks.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We look forward to having you with us on the 15th of June.<\/p>\n<p><i>Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His writings on the web magazine Reality Sandwich have generated a vast online following; he speaks frequently at conferences and other events, and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts. Writing in Ode magazine&#8217;s &#8220;25 Intelligent Optimists&#8221; issue, David Korten (author of When Corporations Rule the World) called Eisenstein &#8220;one of the up-and-coming great minds of our time.&#8221; Eisenstein graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, and spent the next ten years as a Chinese-English translator.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large\"><b>Karen Elkins Launches Beautiful, New Book\u00a0<i>InsideOut<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Visionary graphic designer, Karen Elkins (who produces the e-magazine for TransitionTalks), has published a marvelous, gorgeous new book that combines extraordinary graphics with forward looking articles by scientists and researchers who are defining the leading edge of science. It\u2019s really an amazing piece of work that will take you to the edge of discovery \u2013 in a very beautiful environment!<\/p>\n<p>Click on the image below to see just how extraordinary this book is. Tip: The video is really worth the price of admission!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/insideoutbook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/futuredition.org\/2019\/images\/elkins-book.jpg\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/insideoutbook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>Find out more here<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#F8F9B3\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small\">Our e-Magazine has complete information on our TransitionTalks series with articles from past speakers<br \/>\nGregg Braden, Joe Dispenza &amp; Bruce Lipton:<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/sciencetosage\/docs\/berkely_springs_transition_talks_de?e=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/transitiontalks.org\/images\/magazine-cover-2.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>THINK LINKS<\/p><\/div>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/05\/09\/arts\/facebook-antiquities-syria-iraq.html\">Now for Sale on Facebook: Looted Middle Eastern Antiquities \u2013 (New York Times \u2013 May 9, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nFacebook groups advertising the items that may have been looted by Islamic State militants grew rapidly during the upheaval of the Arab Spring and the ensuing wars, which created unprecedented opportunities for traffickers, said Amr Al-Azm, a professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio and a former antiquities official in Syria. He has monitored the trade for years along with his colleagues at the Athar Project, named for the Arabic word for antiquities. At the same time, Dr. Al-Azm said, social media lowered the barriers to entry to the marketplace. Now there are at least 90 Facebook groups, most in Arabic, connected to the illegal trade in Middle Eastern antiquities, with tens of thousands of members, he said. They often post items or inquiries in the group, then take the discussion into chat or WhatsApp messaging, making it difficult to track. Some users circulate requests for certain types of items, providing an incentive for traffickers to produce them, a scenario that Dr. Al-Azm called \u201cloot to order.\u201d After the\u00a0<i>BBC<\/i>\u00a0published an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-47628369\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">article<\/a>\u00a0about the work of Dr. Al-Azm and his colleagues last week, Facebook said that it had removed 49 groups connected to antiquities trafficking. Dr. Al-Azm countered that 90 groups were still up. Instead of simply deleting the pages, Dr. Al-Azm said, Facebook should devise a more comprehensive strategy to stop the sales while allowing investigators to preserve photos and records uploaded to the groups. A hastily posted photo, after all, might be the only record of a looted object that is available to law enforcement or scholars. Simply deleting the page would destroy \u201ca huge corpus of evidence\u201d that will be needed to identify, track and recover looted treasures for years to come, he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/security\/millions-people-uploaded-photos-ever-app-then-company-used-them-n1003371\">Millions of People Uploaded Photos to the Ever App. Then the Company Used Them to Develop Facial Recognition Tools. \u2013 (NBC \u2013 May 9, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\n\u201cMake memories\u201d: That\u2019s the slogan on the website for the photo storage app Ever, accompanied by a cursive logo and an example album titled \u201cWeekend with Grandpa.\u201d Everything about Ever\u2019s branding is warm and fuzzy, about sharing your \u201cbest moments\u201d while freeing up space on your phone. What isn\u2019t obvious on Ever\u2019s website or app \u2014 except for a brief reference that was added to the privacy policy after NBC News reached out to the company in April \u2014 is that the photos people share are used to train the company\u2019s facial recognition system, and that Ever then offers to sell that technology to private companies, law enforcement and the military. In other words, what began in 2013 as another cloud storage app has pivoted toward a far more lucrative business known as Ever AI \u2014 without telling the app\u2019s millions of users. Doug Aley, Ever\u2019s CEO, said that Ever AI does not share the photos or any identifying information about users with its facial recognition customers. Rather, the billions of images are used to instruct an algorithm how to identify faces. Every time Ever users enable facial recognition on their photos to group together images of the same people, Ever\u2019s facial recognition technology learns from the matches and trains itself. That knowledge, in turn, powers the company\u2019s commercial facial recognition products. While most facial recognition algorithms are trained on well-established, publicly circulating datasets \u2014 some of which have also faced criticism for taking people\u2019s photos without their explicit consent \u2014 Ever is different in using its own customers\u2019 photos to improve its commercial technology.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/investing-lawsuit-ai-trades-cost-millions\">Investor Sues after an AI\u2019s Automated Trades Cost Him $20 Million \u2013 (Futurism \u2013 May 5, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nRobots are getting more humanoid every day, but they still can\u2019t be sued. Hong Kong real estate tycoon Samathur Li Kin-kan is suing a company that used one of those trade-executing AIs to manage his account, causing millions of dollars in losses \u2014 a first-of-its-kind court case that could help determine who should be held responsible when an AI screws up. Li met Raffaele Costa, CEO and founder of Tyndaris Investments, in March 2017, at which point Costa told Li his company was launching a robot hedge fund controlled by a supercomputer named K1. Li expressed interest in the fund, so Costa started sharing simulations with Li that showed how K1 could make double-digit returns on investments. Li was apparently impressed, because he agreed to let K1 manage $2.5 billion, with the goal of eventually increasing that to $5 billion. Within 6 months, the AI was losing money regularly \u2014 on one particularly bad day, its decisions cost Li more than $20 million. Li then filed a $23 million lawsuit against Tyndaris, alleging that Costa exaggerated K1\u2019s abilities. Tyndaris\u2019 lawyers, meanwhile, are suing him for $3 million in unpaid fees. The question of who\u2019s responsible when AI makes a mistake is already lurking at the edge of nearly every industry dabbling in the technology, from transportation to healthcare to law enforcement. Should it be the person who wrote the code? The person marketing the AI? Or are end users responsible for the outcome given that any new technology is certain to be a bit wonky at first?<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>NEW DISCOVERIES<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg24232283-700-major-discovery-suggests-denisovans-lived-in-tibet-160000-years-ago\/\">Major Discovery Suggests Denisovans Lived in Tibet 160,000 Years Ago \u2013 (New Scientist \u2013 May 1, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThe first fossil of our cousins the Denisovans ever to be discovered outside Siberia has been identified in Tibet. It hints that fossils from these extinct humans are more widespread than we thought, and may help settle a long-running debate about our origins. Denisovans were discovered in 2010, when the DNA from an ancient bone fragment found in Denisova cave in Siberia was sequenced. Genetic analysis has shown that many people in China and South-East Asia carry a little Denisovan DNA. This means that our ancestors must once have lived alongside and interbred with our cousins. Studies also found that people in Tibet carry a specific Denisovan gene that allows red blood cells to cope with low oxygen levels, helping people to live at high altitude. Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues examined a jawbone discovered in 1980 in Baishiya Karst cave, in Tibet\u2019s Jiangla river valley. They found that the shape of the jaw and large size of the teeth are different to those of modern humans. Radioisotope dating suggested that the fossil is 160,000 years old at least, which is tens of thousands of years before our own species is thought to have reached the Tibetan Plateau. No DNA could be extracted from the fossil, but analyzing collagen protein in its teeth confirmed the jawbone came from a Denisovan. This is the first time that protein analysis has been used as the sole way of identifying an ancient hominin, says team member Frido Welker at Lanzhou University in China. The finding could explain the 30,000-year-old stone tools discovered in Tibet last year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/65420-earth-crust-peeling.html\">Off the Coast of Portugal, the Earth&#8217;s Crust Might Be Peeling in Two \u2013 (Live Science \u2013 May 7, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nIn 1969, a giant earthquake off the coast of Portugal kicked up a tsunami that killed over a dozen people. Some 200 years prior, an even larger earthquake hit the same area, killing around 100,000 people and destroying the city of Lisbon. Two earthquakes in the same spot over a couple hundred years is not cause for alarm. But what puzzled seismologists about these tremors was that they began in relatively flat beds of the ocean \u2014 away from any faults or cracks in the Earth&#8217;s crust where tectonic plates slip past each other, releasing energy and causing earthquakes. One idea is that a tectonic plate is peeling into two layers \u2014 the top peeling off the bottom layer \u2014 a phenomenon that has never been observed before, a group of scientists reported in April at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly held in Vienna. This peeling may be creating a new subduction zone, or an area in which one tectonic plate is rammed beneath another. he peeling is likely driven by a water-absorbing layer in the middle of the tectonic plate. Now, this transformed layer might be causing enough weakness in the plate for the bottom layer to peel away from the top layer. That peeling could lead to deep fractures that trigger a tiny subduction zone, National Geographic reported. A Portuguese research group isn&#8217;t the first to propose this idea, but it&#8217;s the first to provide some data on it. They tested their hypothesis with two-dimensional models, and their preliminary results showed that this type of activity is indeed possible \u2014 but is still yet to be proven.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>GENETICS \/ HEALTH TECHNOLOGY \/ BIOTECHNOLOGY<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/environment\/2019\/05\/researchers-now-have-even-more-proof-that-air-pollution-can-cause-dementia\/\">Researchers Now Have Even More Proof That Air Pollution Can Cause Dementia \u2013 (Mother Jones \u2013 May 2, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nA few years ago, the research implicating air pollution as one factor that can contribute to dementia was alarming, consistent, and, ultimately, \u201csuggestive.\u201d Since then scientists have published a wave of studies that reveal that air pollution is much worse for us than we had previously imagined. The evidence is so compelling, in fact, that many leading researchers now believe it\u2019s conclusive. \u201cI have no hesitation whatsoever to say that air pollution causes dementia,\u201d says Caleb Finch, gerontologist and the leader of USC\u2019s Air Pollution and Brain Disease research network, which has completed many of these new studies. In terms of its effects on our health and welfare, Finch says, \u201cair pollution is just as bad as cigarette smoke.\u201d This evidence arrives alongside the alarming news that air quality is actually worsening for many cities in the United States, while the Trump Administration continues its effort to delay or roll-back environmental safeguards. Three economists at Arizona State University\u2014Kelly Bishop, Nicolai Kuminoff, and Jonathan Ketcham linked EPA air quality data to fifteen years of Medicare records for 6.9 million Americans over the age of 65. Rather than simply ask if Americans exposed to more air pollution developed dementia at higher rates, the team identified a quasi-natural experiment that arbitrarily separated Americans into higher and lower air pollution exposure groups. The quirk of legally mandated changing standards across the country allowed the researchers to ask if a manipulated decrease in air pollution exposure actually led to fewer cases of dementia, from Alzheimer\u2019s or other dementing diseases, like strokes. And in counties that had to quickly comply with the new air quality standards, older people developed Alzheimer\u2019s at lower rates than their peers in counties where the new rules didn\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=WHQWC4YD7NE4U&amp;source=url\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/donate.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES\/CLIMATE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-04-28\/starbucks-sbux-dunkin-dnkn-brace-for-coffee-cup-bans-fees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Starbucks, Dunkin Race Against Bans, Taxes on Disposable Cups \u2013 (Bloomberg \u2013 April 28, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThe U.S. accounts for about 120 billion paper, plastic and foam coffee cups each year, or about one-fifth of the global total. Almost every last one of them\u201499.75 percent\u2014ends up as trash, where even paper cups can take more than 20 years to decompose. Overwhelmed by trash, jurisdictions around the world are banning single-use plastic takeaway containers and cups. Europe says plastic beverage cups have to go by 2021. India wants them out by 2022. Taiwan set a deadline of 2030. Surcharges like Berkeley\u2019s are likely to get more common in an attempt to quickly change consumer behavior before more outright bans. Executives have long suspected this day would come. Separately and together, they\u2019ve been working on a more environmentally friendly alternative to the plastic-lined, double-walled, plastic-lidded paper cup for more than a decade. It hasn\u2019t gone that well. A decade ago, Starbucks pledged to serve up to 25% of its coffee in personal travel mugs. It has since ratcheted its goals way down. The company gives a discount to anyone who brings their own mug, and still only about 5% of customers do. It temporarily added a 5-pence surcharge to disposable cups in the U.K. last year, which it said increased reusable cup use 150%. Local governments, like Berkeley\u2019s, (California) aren\u2019t waiting. The municipality surveyed residents before it imposed the charge and found it would convince more than 70% to start bringing their own cups with the 25-cent surcharge, said Miriam Gordon, program director at nonprofit group Upstream, which helped Berkeley write its legislation. (Editor\u2019s note: This article does an excellent job of explaining just how complex a challenge designing an environmentally sound, single use coffee cup really is \u2013 far more so than you might guess.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/05\/01\/us\/maine-ban-styrofoam-trnd\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maine Becomes the First State to Ban Styrofoam \u2013 (CNN \u2013May 1, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nFood containers made of Styrofoam, also known as polystyrene, will be officially banned from businesses in Maine. The law, which will go into effect January 1, 2021, prohibits restaurants, caterers, coffee shops and grocery stores from using the to-go foam containers because they cannot be recycled in Maine. Maine has become the first state to take such a step as debate about banning plastic bags or other disposable products is spreading across the nation. While states like New York and California have banned single-use plastic bags, others such as Tennessee and Florida have made it illegal for local municipalities to regulate them. Maryland&#8217;s legislature also has approved bills to ban polystyrene, but it&#8217;s unclear whether Republican Gov. Larry Hogan will sign the legislation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/shrimp-are-testing-positive-cocaine-and-scientists-dont-know-why-1412562\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shrimp Are Testing Positive for Cocaine \u2013 (Newsweek \u2013 May 2, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nTo carry out their study published in the journal\u00a0<i>Environment International<\/i>, scientists collected shrimp samples in July 2018 from 15 sites across five river catchments in the non-metropolitan county of Suffolk on the east coast of England, U.K. These included Gipping, Alde, Deben, Stour and Waveney. Cocaine was the most commonly found drug and identified in every sample, as well as the anesthetic lidocaine. This is often used by dealers to bulk up the cocaine, according to the study authors. The scientists believe cocaine could have entered the water because of leakages or overflows from sewers. Pesticides banned in the U.K. were also discovered, including fenuron. Ketamine, the animal tranquilizer which is used as a party drug, was also identified, as well as the opioid medication Tramadol and an antidepressant. The contamination of wildlife with illicit substances is not isolated to rural England. Last year, separate research by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife discovered the opioid oxycodone in shellfish off the coast of the state for the first time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coldclimatechange.com\/climate-intelligence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Climate Intelligence \u2013 (Cold Climate Change \u2013 May 3, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nScientists and the press are desperately trying to explain the cold (article recounts numerous examples of unseasonably cold weather all over the globe) when it\u2019s supposed to be warming. The question has been recurring since the winter of 2013-2014 when a record cold wave ushered the term \u201cpolar vortex\u201d into the common vernacular. The following year produced a similar pattern. Recent news coverage largely echoes reports written then. The suggestion is that the severe cold is a manifestation of global warming. That makes perfect sense to someone losing their marbles. However, we will witness a \u2018Catastrophic\u2019 decline threatening the Earth, not because of warming but because of the decimation of insect populations. A global scientific review of insect decline has warned insects will \u201cgo down the path of extinction\u201d in a few decades, with \u201ccatastrophic\u201d repercussions for the planet\u2019s ecosystems. The biodiversity crisis is said to be even deeper than that of climate change, reports news.com.au.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/2019\/02\/india-single-use-plastic-bans-maharashtra-tamil-nadu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Plastic Bans Spread in India. Winners and Losers Aren&#8217;t Who You&#8217;d Expect. \u2013 (National Geographic \u2013 February 8, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nTamil Nadu, home to nearly 68 million people, is part of an ambitious national campaign to rid the world\u2019s second-most populous nation of plastic waste. Last June, as India hosted the United Nations\u2019 World Environment Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its intention to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022. Delhi, India\u2019s capital city, adopted a more expansive ban that included bags, cutlery, cups, and plates in 2017. By the beginning of this year, local governments in more than half of India\u2019s 29 states and 7 territories had crafted legislation taking aim at single-use plastic. Bans on thin plastic shopping bags are the most common regulations. State government officials are also working to reduce the manufacturing of plastic by shutting down factories and preventing import of plastic products. They are also refining an effort begun in 2016 to establish \u201cextended producer responsibility,\u201d or EPR guidelines that require manufacturers to pay for the collection and recycling of waste their products become. India has a fairly low per capita use of plastics (24 pounds a year, compared to 240 pounds in the United States), but with a population of 1.35 billion, this translates into more than 550,000 tons of mismanaged plastic waste reaching the ocean every year. The Ganges alone, which provides drinking water for more than 400 million people, transports an estimated 110,000 tons of plastic every year to its mouth and ranks second only to the Yangtze River in China on a Top 20 list of rivers, published in 2017, that move the most plastic waste to the seas. Success of the bans, so far, is mixed. But street vendors who used to have small mounds of plastic waste near their shops have started switching to reusable materials, paper, and plant fibers to pack and serve food. Women\u2019s self-help groups are swamped with orders for bags made of cotton and jute. Inmates of a prison started selling cloth bags at the prison bazaar. Some say rural residents of Tamil Nadu are benefiting financially from the plastic ban, as demand rises for such natural materials as banana leaves (lining plates), hollow papaya stalks (straws), and lotus and areca nut leaves (packaging material). Many Indians live in multi-generational homes and there is living memory of using sustainable alternatives. Kamakshi Subramaniyan, a 93-year-old civic activist in Tamil Nadu, says, \u201cWe used to take metal containers with tight lids to buy oil. That should restart as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>COMMUNICATIONS\/COMPUTING<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/f\/613461\/this-chip-was-demoed-at-jeff-bezoss-secretive-tech-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This Chip Was Demoed at Jeff Bezos\u2019s Secretive Tech Conference. It Could Be Key to the Future of AI. \u2013 (Technology Review \u2013 May 1, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThe setting was MARS, an elite, invite-only conference where robots stroll (or fly) through a luxury resort, mingling with famous scientists and sci-fi authors. Just a few researchers are invited to give technical talks, and the sessions are meant to be both awe-inspiring and enlightening. The crowd, meanwhile, consisted of about 100 of the world\u2019s most important researchers, CEOs, and entrepreneurs. Here, Vivienne Sze told the audience about the chips, being developed in her lab at MIT, that promise to bring powerful artificial intelligence to a multitude of devices where power is limited, beyond the reach of the vast data centers where most AI computations take place. \u201cWe need new hardware because Moore\u2019s law has slowed down,\u201d Sze says, referring to the axiom coined by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore who that predicted that the number of transistors on a chip will double roughly every 18 months \u2013 leading to a commensurate performance boost in computer power. This law is increasingly now running into the physical limits that come with engineering components at an atomic scale. And it is spurring new interest in alternative architectures and approaches to computing. The high stakes attached to investing in next-generation AI chips \u2013 and maintaining America\u2019s dominance in chipmaking overall \u2013 aren\u2019t lost on the US government. Sze\u2019s microchips are being developed with funding from a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program. Those chips are both extremely efficient and flexible in their design, something that is crucial for a field that\u2019s evolving incredibly quickly. Sze\u2019s hardware is more efficient partly because it physically reduces the bottleneck between where data is stored and where it\u2019s analyzed, but also because it uses clever schemes for reusing data. The microchips are designed to squeeze more out of the deep-learning AI algorithms that have already turned the world upside down. And in the process, they may inspire those algorithms themselves to evolve.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-05-silicon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Move Over, Silicon Switches: There&#8217;s a New Way to Compute \u2013 (PhysOrg \u2013 May 8, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nLogic and memory devices, such as the hard drives in computers, now use nanomagnetic mechanisms to store and manipulate information. Unlike silicon transistors, which have fundamental efficiency limitations, they require no energy to maintain their magnetic state: Energy is needed only for reading and writing information. One method of controlling magnetism uses electrical current that transports spin to write information, but this usually involves flowing charge. Because this generates heat and energy loss, the costs can be enormous, particularly in the case of large server farms or in applications like artificial intelligence, which require massive amounts of memory. Spin, however, can be transported without a charge with the use of a topological insulator\u2014a material whose interior is insulating but that can support the flow of electrons on its surface. Researchers from New York University have created a voltage-controlled topological spin switch (vTOPSS) that requires only electric fields, rather than currents, to switch between two Boolean logic states, greatly reducing the heat generated and energy used. While heterostructure devices like theirs, composed of a magnetic insulator and topological insulator, are still slightly slower than silicon transistors, vTOPSS increases functionality and circuit design possibilities, as it has integrated logic and non-volatile memory. Because vTOPPS will reduce reliance on cloud memory, it also holds the potential for making computing safer, as hackers will have greater difficulty gaining access to a system&#8217;s hardware.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>SHELTER\/ARCHITECTURE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/design\/2019\/05\/modern-kitchen-history-design-ideas-domestic-architecture\/586345\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Frankfurt Kitchen Changed How We Cook\u2014and Live \u2013 (City Lab \u2013 May 8, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nWe often think of apartment kitchens as problems to be solved. They\u2019re likely to be short on counter space, storage, and light, or they\u2019re stubbornly out of step with trends in interior design. As renters, we may try to spruce them up with extra shelves and unusual drawer pulls. Dream kitchens, by contrast, are the light-filled, airy, marble-clad workspaces where movie characters sip tea before an open laptop. They\u2019re situated well outside the city limits, inside large houses on landscaped grounds. The ideal view over the horizon of the kitchen sink is a tall hydrangea shrub, not a brick wall. The ideal American kitchen has long had an implicit pro-suburban bias, positing city kitchens as the domain of the young, single, and struggling. Viewed through a 21st-century lens, kitchen politics usually fall along the fault line of gender and domestic labor: We debate who does their share of the housework and cooking in a family, and what that means for women\u2019s professional development and personal well-being. The fault line prior to the mid-20th century wasn\u2019t gender, but class. We\u2019re used to thinking of kitchens as a universal kind of room that almost everyone has\u2014as essential as a place to sleep, or a bathroom. Our great-great-grandparents were not. This article traces the history of the development of the modern kitchen. It\u2019s a fascinating look at \u201chow we got here\u201d in terms of how we organize domestic space.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>ENERGY DEVELOPMENTS<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/engineering.nyu.edu\/news\/researchers-make-organic-solar-cells-immune-ravages-water-air-and-light\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Researchers Make Organic Solar Cells Immune to the Ravages of Water, Air and Light \u2013 (NYU \u2013 May 1, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThe market for organic solar cells is expected to grow more than 20% between 2017 and 2020, driven by advantages over traditional silicon solar cells: they can be mass produced at scale using roll-to-roll processing; the materials comprising them can be easily found in the earth and could be applied to solar cells through green chemistry; they can be semitransparent and therefore less visually intrusive \u2014 meaning they can be mounted on windows or screens and are ideal for mobile devices; they are ultra-flexible and can stretch; and they can be ultra-lightweight. Unlike silicon solar cells, however, organic cells are highly vulnerable to moisture, oxygen and sunlight itself. State-of-the-art remediation involves encapsulating the cell, which adds to production cost and unit weight, while reducing efficiency. Researchers at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering have discovered a means of making organic solar panels more robust, including conferring resistance to oxygen, water and light by removing, not adding, material. They employed an adhesive tape to strip the electron-accepting molecules \u2014 the conjugated fullerene derivative Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) \u2014 from the topmost surface of the photoactive layer of the solar cell, leaving only non-reactive organic polymers exposed. Removing PCBM from the exposed film surface reduces the chance of encounters with oxidation sources such as oxygen molecules and water, the latter being especially damaging to PCBM.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=WHQWC4YD7NE4U&amp;source=url\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/donate.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>AGRICULTURE\/FOOD<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-farmers-retirement-insight\/trade-war-and-sagging-prices-push-u-s-family-farmers-to-leave-the-field-idUSKCN1S613U\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trade War and Sagging Prices Push U.S. Family Farmers to Leave the Field \u2013 (Reuters \u2013 April 30, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nAcross the Midwest, growing numbers of grain farmers are choosing to shed their machinery and find renters for their land, all to stem the financial strain on their families, report a dozen leading farm-equipment auction houses. As these older grain farmers are retiring, fewer younger people are lining up to replace them. The trend has created boom times for the auction houses, which report that their retirement business has grown 30% or more over the past six months, compared to the same period a year earlier. But it is expected to put a strain on the agricultural supply chain: It means fewer customers for seed and chemical companies, fewer machine buyers, and fewer suppliers for grain merchants. Farmer retirement rates are not tracked by either state or U.S. government agencies, but federal data shows the ranks of farmers are gradually aging. The average age of U.S. farm operators was 57.5 years in 2017, up from 54.3 years in 1997. The number of farms is shrinking, too, as the industry increasingly is consolidated either into the hands of large-scale operators or tiny niche crop growers. Mid-sized farms \u2013 those with annual sales of more than $50,000 but less than $5 million &#8211; are dwindling. For many families, leaving farming is a painful but simple calculation: The trade war with China, sparked by the tariffs Trump slapped on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, has just entered its tenth month. In response, China levied on about $50 billion of US agricultural exports last summer including soy, corn, wheat, cotton, rice, sorghum, beef, pork, poultry, fish, dairy products, nuts, and vegetables.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/mathematician-develops-non-toxic-pest-control\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Breakthrough on Non-Toxic Pest Control Which Doesn\u2019t Harm Bees \u2013 (Good News Network \u2013 May 2, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nAn estimated $130 billion worth of crops are lost every year to diseases caused by nematodes. Targeting the harmful nematodes with chemical pesticides is problematic because they can indiscriminately harm other insects. There are naturally occurring bacteria contained in soil which can help protect plants against harmful nematodes, but until now there has not been an effective way to harness the power of these bacteria to protect crops on a large scale. \u201cA nematode, as all other living organisms, requires some proteins to be produced to survive and make offspring, and RNA interference is a process which stops, or silences, production of these,\u201d said Dr. Konstantin Blyuss from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex. The team has developed a method to \u2018silence\u2019 the harmful nematode\u2019s genes by using biostimulants derived from naturally occurring soil bacteria. The biostimulants also \u2018switch off\u2019 the plant\u2019s own genes that are affected by the nematodes, making it much harder for the parasite to harm the crop. The gene silencing process is triggered when biostimulants, which are metabolites of bacteria occurring naturally in the soil, are applied to wheat. The biostimulants can be applied either by soaking the seeds or roots in a solution containing the biostimulants, or by adding the solution to the soil in which the plants are growing. Blyuss and his colleagues have used \u2018RNA interference\u2019 (RNAi) to precisely target a species of nematode that harms wheat.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/crispr-gene-editing-humane-livestock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A More Humane Livestock Industry, Brought to You by Crispr \u2013 (Wired \u2013 March 19, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThe project at UC Davis was in part a proof of concept. Alison Van Eenennaam was the animal geneticist in charge of the proceedings. One of her goals is to make the raising of livestock not only more efficient but also more humane. If a calf\u2019s sex could be altered with a copy-paste of a single gene, that might pave the way for all kinds of experimentation\u2014and not only in the beef business. Although ranchers may prefer male animals, their colleagues in the egg and dairy industries favor females. Since bulls can\u2019t make milk and roosters can\u2019t lay eggs, it\u2019s cheaper to destroy them than raise them to adulthood. But if you could ensure that only heifers and hens are born, the carnage wouldn\u2019t be necessary. For all the anxiety and ambiguity surrounding Crispr, there\u2019s little doubt that it could revolutionize farming as Van Eenennaam hopes. In January, British researchers announced plans to raise chickens with an immunity to influenza. A small genomic incision, they hypothesized, could prevent the virus from infecting its hosts. That would not only save chickens from untimely demise but also cut out a likely conduit for a devastating human pandemic. You may not like the idea of Crispr meddling with grandma\u2019s chicken pot pie recipe, but would you relent if it could stop the next Spanish flu? Randall Prather is a geneticist at the University of Missouri. His lab has raised pigs that are resistant to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS, an untreatable disease that costs the US swine industry more than half a billion dollars each year. The solution, he says, comes down to modifying as few as two DNA base pairs out of 3 billion. Prather licensed the technology to a British company called Genus, which says it expects to spend tens of millions of dollars on the FDA approval process.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>SECURITY AND THE FUTURE OF WARFARE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/news\/sledgehammer-hellfire-missiles-packed-with-swords\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">US Tries to Cut Down on Civilian Casualties by Shooting Sledgehammer Hellfire Missiles Packed with Swords at Terrorists \u2013 (The Blaze \u2013 May 9, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nAccording to the\u00a0<i>Wall St. Journal<\/i>\u00a0(article paywalled), \u201cThe U.S. government has developed a specially designed, secret missile for pinpoint airstrikes that kill terrorist leaders with no explosion, drastically reducing damage and minimizing the chances of civilian casualties, multiple current and former U.S. officials said. Both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have used the weapon while closely guarding its existence.\u201d The R9X is a missile designed to kill intended targets without subjecting nearby civilians to things like the force, heat, and shrapnel generated by explosive missiles. So how does it work? The R9X is a variant of the Hellfire missile, which was used against ISIS propagandist Mohammed Emwazi in 2015. Instead of an explosive, the new projectile contains an inert warhead that&#8217;s designed to come down on the target like a 100-pound, rocket-propelled sledgehammer, minus the handle. The warhead is assisted by a ring of six long blades that deploy around the projectile right before impact, shredding anything unfortunate enough to be in the way. The\u00a0<i>Wall Street Journal<\/i>\u00a0story said that the Pentagon and the CIA have used the weapon before while keeping its existence a closely guarded secret. The story also noted that the small number of people who knew about the R9X have nicknamed it &#8220;the flying Ginsu,&#8221; in reference to the famously sharp brand of knife that used to be sold on television informercials. The effects of the R9X can be seen in the photos (included in article) of the February 2017 drone strike against al-Qaeda leader Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>TRENDS OF GOVERNANCE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-afghanistan-military\/us-military-stops-tracking-key-metric-on-afghan-war-as-situation-deteriorates-idUSKCN1S734C\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Military Stops Tracking Key Metric on Afghan War as Situation Deteriorates \u2013 (Reuters \u2013 May 1, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThe U.S. military has stopped tracking the amount of territory controlled or influenced by the Afghan government and militants, according to a U.S. watchdog, one of the last remaining public metrics that tracked the worsening security situation in the war-torn country. The move comes as U.S. and Taliban officials have held several rounds of talks aimed at ensuring a safe exit for U.S. forces in return for a Taliban guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used by militants to threaten the rest of the world. The Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive in early April. Even before the announcement, combat had intensified across Afghanistan in recent weeks and hundreds of Afghan troops and civilians have been killed. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said that the U.S. military had told the watchdog it was no longer tracking the level of control or influence the Afghan government and militants had over districts in the country. The NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission in Afghanistan had told SIGAR that the assessments were \u201cof limited decision-making value to the (RS) Commander.\u201d Experts said that the move to stop tracking the key data was worrying because Washington had publicly set a benchmark which would now be difficult to measure. \u201cIf the military is not going to be tracking that data anymore, that is going to make it a lot more difficult to get a sense as to how strong the Taliban is,\u201d Michael Kugelman, with the Woodrow Wilson Center, said. \u201cThat may well be the military\u2019s intention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2019\/05\/10\/trump-continues-obamas-war-on-whistleblowers-arrests-another-alleged-intercept-source\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trump Continues Obama\u2019s War on Whistleblowers, Arrests Another Alleged Intercept Source \u2013 (Caitlin Johnstone \u2013 May 10, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nFormer US Air Force language analyst Daniel Hale has been arrested and charged with violating the Espionage Act and other offenses related to leaking classified documents to the press. Court documents didn\u2019t reveal the identity of the journalist who received the documents, but AP reports that details in the indictment make clear that Jeremy Scahill, a founding editor of\u00a0<i>The Intercept<\/i>, is the reporter who received the leaks. \u201cThe source said he decided to provide these documents to\u00a0<i>The Intercept<\/i>\u00a0because he believes the public has a right to understand the process by which people are placed on kill lists and ultimately assassinated on orders from the highest echelons of the U.S. government,\u201d Scahill\u2019s 2015 article reads, quoting his source as saying, \u201cThis outrageous explosion of watchlisting \u2014 of monitoring people and racking and stacking them on lists, assigning them numbers, assigning them \u2018baseball cards,\u2019 assigning them death sentences without notice, on a worldwide battlefield \u2014 it was, from the very first instance, wrong.\u201d Commenting on this, Freedom of the Press Foundation Executive Director Trevor Timm said, \u201cProsecuting journalistic sources chills investigative reporting and poses an enormous threat to whistleblowers, press freedom rights, and the public\u2019s right to know. Whistleblowers should be lauded for their courage, not charged with felonies and imprisoned.\u201d The Trump administration is on pace to shatter the Obama administration\u2019s record for the number of prosecutions of alleged sources. Hale is at least the sixth alleged journalistic source charged by the Trump administration in just over two years in office. The Justice Department has previously indicated\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/04\/us\/politics\/jeff-sessions-trump-leaks-attorney-general.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dozens<\/a>\u00a0more under leak investigations which are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>INTERNATIONAL TRENDS<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/revealed-the-us-militarys-36-codenamed-operations-in-africa-090000841.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The U.S. Military&#8217;s 36 Code-named Operations in Africa \u2013 (Yahoo News \u2013 April 17, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nBetween 2013 and 2017, U.S. special operations forces saw combat in at least 13 African countries, according to retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who served at U.S. Africa Command from 2013 to 2015 and then headed Special Operations Command Africa until 2017. Those countries, according to Bolduc, are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Tunisia. He added that U.S. troops have been killed or wounded in action in at least six of them: Kenya, Libya, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Tunisia. Yahoo News has put together a list of three dozen such operations across the continent (listed and described in article). The code-named operations cover a variety of different military missions, ranging from psychological operations to counterterrorism. Eight of the named activities are so-called 127e programs, named for the budgetary authority that allows U.S. special operations forces to use certain host-nation military units as surrogates in counterterrorism missions. Used extensively across Africa, 127e programs can be run either by Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the secretive organization that controls the Navy\u2019s SEAL Team 6, the Army\u2019s Delta Force and other special mission units, or by \u201ctheater special operations forces.\u201d These programs are \u201cspecifically designed for us to work with our host nation partners to develop small \u2014 anywhere between 80 and 120 personnel \u2014 counterterrorism forces that we\u2019re partnered with,\u201d said Bolduc. \u201cThey are specially selected partner-nation forces that go through extensive training, with the same equipment we have, to specifically go after counterterrorism targets, especially high-value targets.\u201d While the Defense Department has acknowledged the names, locations and purposes of some of these operations, others are far lower-profile. Almost all are unknown to the general public.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>LIFE STYLE\/SOCIAL TRENDS AND VALUES<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/2019\/5\/2\/18510958\/social-media-addiction-boredom-loneliness-society-technology-smart-phones\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bored and Lonely? Blame Your Phone. \u2013 (Vox \u2013 May 2, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nMost people assume social media is making us more narcissistic, more compulsive, and lonelier. But is that really true? A new book titled\u00a0<i>Bored Lonely Angry Stupid<\/i>\u00a0tries to answer this question by looking at the past. The authors examined diaries, letters, and memoirs of a broad cross-section of Americans from the 19th and 20th centuries, trying to capture their inner lives as closely as possible. Then they conducted interviews with modern-day Americans in order to understand how their emotions are being transformed by technological change. The idea was to see how our views of boredom, loneliness, selfhood, and community have evolved over time, and how technologies have sparked those evolutions. And what they found was striking: We don\u2019t merely develop new devices for expressing our emotions \u2014 our devices actually alter what emotions we express. The article is excerpted from an interview with one of the authors, Susan J. Matt. Interviewer: \u201cWhat did it mean to be bored or lonely in the 18th or 19th century?\u201d Matt: The word \u201cboredom\u201d didn\u2019t even exist until the mid-19th century. When people experienced empty moments, they described them as dull or monotonous or tedious. Boredom wasn\u2019t a category of experience yet. People expected feelings of empty time and accepted them as part and parcel of being human. And in fact many thought that\u2019s how God had laid out the world. Later in the interview, Matt notes, \u201cI think today we generally call being alone \u2018loneliness.\u2019 Often in the 19th century, people talked about it in terms of solitude, and it was generally seen in a more positive, redemptive light. Just having that different language gave the experience of being alone a different meaning and value. The study of the history of emotions suggests that although we may use the same words for feelings across centuries, in different eras these words are embedded in different cultures and end up having very different connotations. As a result, the words mean something different and the feeling itself may be different too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/2019\/05\/tired-of-spending-money-on-the-things-you-need-try-this\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tired of Spending Money on the Things You Need? Try This \u2013 (AlterNet \u2013 May 8, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nImagine needing a refrigerator, a child\u2019s car seat, and a stroller. Except you\u2019re broke and have no funds to make a Target or a Walmart run. What do you do? Detroiter Halima Cassells has the answer: Create your own Free Market. Cassells is co-founder of Free Market of Detroit\u2014a place where you can probably find the things you need, and then some. In 2012, Cassells had a year-old baby, and since her other daughters were so much older, she no longer had the baby supplies she needed. So, she decided to host a backyard BBQ, invite all her family and friends, and ask them all to bring baby items they no longer needed. People could take what they needed, as much as they needed. The result was all the moms in need left with more baby gear than they could have imagined. Their needs were met. And they didn\u2019t spend a dime. Fast-forward to 2019. The Free Market has grown into a regular event, with one or two held a month, dozens of people attending each one, serving a thousand or more annually. There is a DJ, there is a dance space, and everyone brings as much to give away, or as little, as they are comfortable doing. Some people who might not have an item to give will offer to teach people something, like knitting, crocheting, or yoga. They can also pledge to host a Free Market in their own communities. In this way, the Free Market of Detroit is a multi-genre interactive installation, while at its heart it is an old-fashioned swap meet\u2014although nothing is technically traded. It\u2019s all given, freely, says Cassells. \u201cWe\u2019re pushed to say, \u2018What can I give? What do I have that I\u2019m happy to give?\u2019\u201d However, the Free Market may bring about one pitfall: \u201cAt one point, I started to hoard stuff, because I was finding so much cool stuff. Now I\u2019m minimal\u2014I love the detachment to things, and the things that are really special, we know what those are and why.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>CONTACT AND THE EXPLORATION OF SPACE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2019\/04\/24\/how-angry-pilots-got-navy-stop-dismissing-ufo-sightings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Angry Pilots Got the Navy to Stop Dismissing UFO Sightings \u2013 (Washington Post \u2013 April 24, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nA recent uptick in sightings of unidentified flying objects \u2014 or as the military calls them, \u201cunexplained aerial phenomena\u201d \u2014 prompted the Navy to draft formal procedures for pilots to document encounters, a corrective measure that former officials say is long overdue. Recently, unidentified aircraft have entered military-designated airspace as often as multiple times per month, according to Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for office of the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare. In some cases, pilots \u2014 many of whom are engineers and academy graduates \u2014 claimed to observe small spherical objects flying in formation. Others say they\u2019ve seen white, Tic Tac-shaped vehicles. Aside from drones, all engines rely on burning fuel to generate power, but these vehicles all had no air intake, no wind and no exhaust. In 2017, the Pentagon first confirmed the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a government operation launched in 2007 to collect and analyze \u201canomalous aerospace threats.\u201d The investigation ranged from \u201cadvanced aircraft fielded by traditional U.S. adversaries to commercial drones to possible alien encounters.\u201d According to former Pentagon officials, program funding, which totaled at least $22\u2009million, was suspended in 2012. Luis Elizondo, a former senior intelligence officer, who ran the AATIP, said the newly drafted guidelines were a culmination of many things, most notably that the Navy had enough credible evidence \u2014 including eyewitness accounts and corroborating radar information \u2014 to \u201cknow this is occurring.\u201d \u201cIf I came to you and said, \u2018There are these things that can fly over our country with impunity, defying the laws of physics, and within moments could deploy a nuclear device at will,\u2019 that would be a matter of national security,\u201d Elizondo said. With the number of U.S. military personnel in the Air Force and Navy who described the same observations, the noise level could not be ignored. See also:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wanttoknow.info\/ufocover-up10pg#morris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UFO Facts and a Solution to the Energy Crisis, Testimony of 60 Government &amp; Military Witnesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/evidence-ripples-fabric-space-found-5-times-month-29546c69-4cea-40b2-a7c2-76ec430659f1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evidence of Ripples in the Fabric of Space Found 5 Times This Month \u2013 (Axios \u2013 May 2, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nScientists hunting for gravitational waves \u2014 ripples in the fabric of space and time sent out by cataclysmic collisions \u2014 have had a busy month. The LIGO and Virgo observatories tasked with detecting these waves began their newest observing run on April 1, and they&#8217;ve already found evidence of 5 possible gravitational wave signals. The observatories are 40% more sensitive following upgrades made since the last observing run ended. By detecting these gravitational waves on Earth, scientists can work backward to find out more about what created those ripples, giving us new insights into some of the most extreme objects in the universe. Three of the gravitational wave signals are thought to be from two merging black holes, with the fourth believed to have been emitted by colliding neutron stars. The fifth, and perhaps most exciting, seems to be from the merger of a black hole and a neutron star. If confirmed, this will mark the first neutron star-black hole merger ever documented. All five signals still need to be confirmed through follow-up analysis.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>NEW TOOLS\/NEW PROCESSES<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zmescience.com\/science\/plastic-pdk-recycle-82353636\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Infinitely-recyclable Plastic Might Help Us Finally Clean up Landfills and Oceans \u2013 (ZME Science \u2013 May 8, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThe Department of Energy\u2019s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has produced a new kind of polymer that, akin to a LEGO playset, can be broken down and reassembled into a different shape, texture, and color without impairing its quality. The new material is called \u2018poly(diketoenamine)\u2019, or PDK. \u201cMost plastics were never made to be recycled,\u201d said lead author Peter Christensen, a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab\u2019s Molecular Foundry. \u201cBut we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective.\u201d The most recyclable plastic today, PET \u2014 poly(ethylene terephthalate) \u2014 is only recycled at a rate of around 20-30%. The rest winds up in incinerators, landfills, or oceans, releasing CO2, or left to clog the Earth for a few centuries until it decomposes. In order to tailor plastics to particular uses, manufacturers also mix in chemical additives to improve certain properties. Fillers, for example, make a plastic tough, while plasticizers are mixed in to make it flexible. These additives are chemically-bound to carbon molecules, and they hold on tight. So they\u2019re virtually impossible to remove even as plastics get processed in recycling plants. Plastics with different chemical compositions get mixed together, ground into bits, and melted during the recycling process. It\u2019s impossible to predict the properties of the resulting material before it\u2019s actually produced. The tendency of recycled plastics to inherit unknown additives has prevented plastics from becoming a \u201ccircular\u201d material \u2014 one whose original building blocks can be recovered for reuse for as long as possible, or \u201cupcycled\u201d to make a new, higher quality product. PDKs won\u2019t have this problem.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>ECONOMY\/FINANCE\/BUSINESS<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/world\/china-cashes-in-on-the-cannabis-boom-5710854\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">China Cashes in on the Cannabis Boom \u2013 (Indian Express\/New York Times \u2013 May 3, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nTwo of China\u2019s 34 regions are quietly leading a boom in cultivating cannabis to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, the nonintoxicating compound that has become a consumer health and beauty craze in the United States and beyond. They are doing so even though cannabidiol has not been authorized for consumption in China, a country with some of the strictest drug-enforcement policies in the world. \u201cIt has huge potential,\u201d said Tan Xin, the chairman of Hanma Investment Group, which in 2017 became the first company to receive permission to extract cannabidiol here in southern China. The movement to legalize the mind-altering kind of cannabis has virtually no chance of emerging in China. But the easing of the plant\u2019s stigma in North America has generated global demand for medicinal products \u2014 especially for cannabidiol \u2014 that companies in China are rushing to fill. The Hempsoul factory has dozens of closed-circuit cameras that stream videos directly to the provincial public security bureau. China relented on industrial hemp only in 2010, allowing Yunnan to resume production. Hemp then was used principally for textiles, including the uniforms of the People\u2019s Liberation Army, but soon the products expanded. The growing industry has brought much-needed investment to Yunnan. The mild, springlike climate is exemplary for growing cannabis, and a farmer can earn the equivalent of $300 an acre for it, more than for flax or rapeseed, Tian of Hempsoul said. China has, in fact, cultivated cannabis for thousands of years \u2014 for textiles, for hemp seeds and oil and even, according to some, for traditional medicine. The Divine Farmer\u2019s Classic of Materia Medica, a text from the first or second century, attributed curative powers to cannabis, its seeds and its leaves for a variety of ailments.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/markdistefano\/mastercard-activists-cut-off-donations-far-right\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Activists Are Trying to Force Mastercard to Cut Off Payments to the Far Right \u2013 (BuzzFeed \u2013 May 1, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nActivists have successfully forced Mastercard to hold a vote by shareholders on a proposal which, if passed, could see the company monitoring payments to global far-right political leaders and white supremacist groups. The vote is slated for June 25th. The proposal aims to see Mastercard establish an internal \u201chuman rights committee\u201d that would stop designated white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists, such as Tommy Robinson, from getting access to money sent from donors using the company\u2019s card payment services. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the green light for shareholders to get the chance to vote on the formation of the committee, despite staunch opposition from the Mastercard board and executives. It\u2019s been conceived by US-based political activists SumOfUs, who want to escalate the battle against white supremacists and far-right groups from tech platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Patreon, and PayPal to one of the biggest companies in world finance, in an attempt to choke off donations. Robinson and several other leading figures in the global far right have been forced in recent months to solicit donations directly on their websites via Mastercard, Visa, and American Express after PayPal banned payments to them. Facebook also disabled the donation function on Robinson\u2019s fan page before deleting it completely. \u201cSpreading hate involves spending money,\u201d said Eoin Dubsky, from SumOfUs.\u201cWhether it\u2019s paying for online advertising or organizing violent rallies, white supremacist groups need financial services from companies like Mastercard.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.corporatesecretary.com\/articles\/shareholders\/31601\/mastercard-agm-feature-human-rights-and-gender-pay-votes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Here<\/a>\u00a0is the board of Mastercard\u2019s take on this issue and on another, the gender pay gap (already legally mandated in the UK), which shareholders will also consider: Not only is the board of directors deeply opposed,\u00a0<i>Zero Hedge<\/i>\u00a0makes the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2019-05-07\/dystopian-approach-sec-blesses-mastercards-idea-cutting-customers-right-wing-views\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">point<\/a>\u00a0that: By doing this, journalist Ben Swann believes the government (via the SEC) granted \u201cbig corporations the ability to control what voices are heard.\u201d The issue with such an approach, the investigative journalist argues, would lead to a wider crackdown on financial payments to anyone who the government would see as unfavorable.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>PROVOCATIVE IDEAS<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/04\/29\/smarter-living\/the-case-for-doing-nothing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Case for Doing Nothing \u2013 (New York Times \u2013 April 29, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nRunning from place to place and laboring over long to-do lists have increasingly become ways to communicate status: I\u2019m so busy because I\u2019m just so important, the thinking goes. Perhaps it\u2019s time to stop all this busyness. Being busy \u2014 if we even are busy \u2014 is rarely the status indicator we\u2019ve come to believe it is. Nonetheless, the impact is real, and instances of burnout, anxiety disorders and stress-related diseases are on the rise, not to mention millennial burnout. There\u2019s a way out of that madness, and it\u2019s not more mindfulness, exercise or a healthy diet (though these things are all still important). What we\u2019re talking about is \u2026 doing nothing. Or, as the Dutch call it,\u00a0<i>niksen<\/i>. It\u2019s difficult to define what doing\u00a0<i>nothing<\/i>\u00a0is, because we are always doing something, even when we\u2019re asleep. Doreen Dodgen-Magee, a psychologist who studies boredom and wrote the book\u00a0<i>Deviced! Balancing Life and Technology in a Digital World<\/i>, likens\u00a0<i>niksen<\/i>\u00a0to a car whose engine is running but isn\u2019t going anywhere. More practically, the idea of\u00a0<i>niksen<\/i>\u00a0is to take conscious, considered time and energy to do activities like gazing out of a window or sitting motionless. Indeed, the benefits of idleness can be wide-ranging. According to Sandi Mann, a psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire in Britain, research has found that daydreaming \u2014 an inevitable effect of idleness \u2014 \u201cliterally makes us more creative, better at problem-solving, better at coming up with creative ideas.\u201d For that to happen, though, total idleness is required.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.scientificamerican.com\/observations\/cosmology-has-some-big-problems\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cosmology Has Some Big Problems &#8211; (Scientific American &#8211; April 30, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nBorn out of a cosmic explosion 13.8 billion years ago, the universe rapidly inflated and then cooled, it is still expanding at an increasing rate and mostly made up of unknown dark matter and dark energy &#8230; right? This well-known story is usually taken as a self-evident scientific fact, despite the relative lack of empirical evidence\u2014and despite a steady crop of discrepancies arising with observations of the distant universe. In recent months, new measurements of the Hubble constant, the rate of universal expansion, suggested major differences between two independent methods of calculation. Discrepancies on the expansion rate have huge implications not simply for calculation but for the validity of cosmology&#8217;s current standard model at the extreme scales of the cosmos. Another recent probe found galaxies inconsistent with the theory of dark matter, which posits this hypothetical substance to be everywhere. But according to the latest measurements, it is not, suggesting the theory needs to be reexamined. A crucial function of theories such as dark matter, dark energy and inflation, which each in its own way is tied to the big bang paradigm, is not to describe known empirical phenomena but rather to maintain the mathematical coherence of the framework itself while accounting for discrepant observations. Fundamentally, they are names for something that must exist insofar as the framework is assumed to be universally valid. Each new discrepancy between observation and theory can of course in and of itself be considered an exciting promise of more research, a progressive refinement toward the truth. But added up, they could also suggest a more confounding problem that is not resolved by tweaking parameters or adding new variables.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowardism-defined.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Is It Possible to Stamp out Terrorism? \u2013 (Cowardism-defined website \u2013 no date)<\/a><br \/>\nMany nations have grappled with terrorism for decades without truly understanding what keeps fuelling it. Governments have promised to eliminate it by investing millions of dollars in security and various counter-terrorism measures. We believe there is a much simpler solution &#8211; which doesn\u2019t cost a penny! A simple change that each of us can do now that will herald the beginning of the end to what we currently call \u201cterrorism\u201d\u2026 What is the true nature of the crime which we currently refer to as &#8220;terrorism&#8221;? Is it not the cowardly act of killing of innocent and unarmed civilians \u2013 including children? We are advocating a change in our vocabulary whenever we refer to \u201cterrorism\u201d or \u201cterrorists\u201d \u2013 we believe \u201ccowardism\u201d or \u201ccowardists\u201d are more appropriate. Our language is full of symbolism \u2013 words such as \u201cterrorism\u201d has the contradictory connotation of glorifying the crime of attacking soft targets (e.g. unarmed civilians in a mall, church or airport). The use of such words serves as propaganda for the terrorist organizations and inspires new recruits. The word \u201ccowardism\u201d on the other hand, recognizes those attacks on innocent civilians without glorifying the crime. Once terms such as \u201ccowardism\u201d, \u201ccowardist attack\u201d or \u201ccowardist bomber\u201d start to become commonly used by the public at a global scale \u2013 the terrorist organizations will find it harder and harder to find inspiration for these attacks \u2013 even if they continue to refer to these by other names such as \u201cJihad\u201d or \u201cmartyrdom\u201d. The symbolism of the language used by the public will always have overarching influence.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>FOR WHAT IT&#8217;S WORTH &#8211; articles off the beaten track which may &#8211; or may not &#8211; have predictive value.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/05\/06\/health\/sunscreen-bloodstream-fda-study\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunscreen Enters Bloodstream after Just One Day of Use, Study Says \u2013 (CNN \u2013 May 6, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nIt took just one day of use for several common sunscreen ingredients to enter the bloodstream at levels high enough to trigger a government safety investigation, according to a pilot study conducted by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, an arm of the US Food and Drug Administration. The study, published in the medical journal JAMA, also found that the blood concentration of three of the ingredients continued to rise as daily use continued and then remained in the body for at least 24 hours after sunscreen use ended. The four chemicals studied &#8212; avobenzone, oxybenzone, ecamsule and octocrylene &#8212; are part of a dozen that the FDA recently said needed to be researched by manufacturers before they could be considered &#8220;generally regarded as safe and effective.&#8221; So, should you stop using sunscreen? Absolutely not, experts say. &#8220;Studies need to be performed to evaluate this finding and determine whether there are true medical implications to absorption of certain ingredients,&#8221; said Yale School of Medicine dermatologist Dr. David Leffell, a spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology. He added that in the meantime, people should &#8220;continue to be aggressive about sun protection.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2019\/05\/12\/bezos-reveals-his-ugly-vision-for-the-world-hes-trying-to-rule\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bezos Reveals His Ugly Vision for the World He\u2019s Trying to Rule \u2013 (Caitlin Johnstone \u2013 May 12, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nThis article may not be very well titled and it definitely has an intent to persuade readers of its agenda. However, it does give a fairly good pr\u00e9cis of Bezos\u2019 vision for the future if you don\u2019t have time to watch his entire presentation\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GQ98hGUe6FM&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=174\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cGoing to Space to Benefit Earth\u201d<\/a>. (Editor\u2019s note: We recommend watching the You Tube clip. It showcases what the richest person on Earth would like to make happen.) The article then critiques Bezos\u2019 vision for the future \u2013 humanity\u2019s future \u2013 and offers the author\u2019s alternative suggestions.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>JUST FOR FUN<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/comedian-machine-ai-learning-puns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Comedian Is in the Machine. AI Is Now Learning Puns \u2013 (Wired \u2013 May 3, 2019)<\/a><br \/>\nHere\u2019s a groaner for you: The greyhound stopped to get a hare cut. Bad? Yup. You can blame a machine. A pun generator might not sound like serious work for an artificial intelligence researcher\u2014more the sort of thing knocked out over the weekend to delight the labmates come Monday. But for He He, who designed just that during her postdoc at Stanford, it\u2019s an entry point to a devilish problem in machine learning. He\u2019s aim is to build AI that\u2019s natural and fun to talk to\u2014bots that don\u2019t just read us the news or tell us the weather, but can crack jokes or compose a poem, even tell a compelling story. But getting there, she says, runs up against the limits of how AI typically learns. Neural networks are natural imitators, learning patterns of language by scouring vast amounts of text. If coherency is your aim, that approach works well. Neural networks, in other words, are rule-abiding to a fault, and that makes them terrible jokers. A well-crafted joke teeters at the edge of coherency without wading into nonsense, He says, and neural networks simply don\u2019t have the sense to strike that balance. Besides, the whole point of creativity is to be, well, novel. Groaners indeed. \u201cWe\u2019re nowhere near solving this,\u201d He acknowledges. Still, Roger Levy, director of MIT\u2019s computational psycholinguistics lab, says the approach is a promising step toward building AI with a bit more personality. The article explains some of the AI teaching process.<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>A FINAL QUOTE<\/p>\n<p><i>To predict the future, we need logic; but we also need faith and imagination, which can sometimes defy logic itself.\u00a0<\/i>&#8211; Arthur C Clarke<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p><b>A special thanks to<\/b>: Chas Freeman, Ursula Freer, Diane Petersen, Gary Sycalik, Steve Ujvarosy, and all of you who have sent us interesting links in the past. If you see something we should know about, do send it along &#8211; thanks.<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org\">johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org<\/a><\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=WHQWC4YD7NE4U&amp;source=url\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/donate-3.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<hr align=\"center\" width=\"300\" \/>\n<p>CONTACT US<\/p>\n<p>Edited by John L. Petersen<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org\">johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.arlingtoninstitute.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.arlingtoninstitute.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>PRIVACY POLICY<\/b>:\u00a0<i>We don&#8217;t share your information with anyone<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FUTUREdition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/logo-twitter.jpg\" alt=\"Twitter\" \/><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/futuredition?sk=wall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/logo-facebook.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook\" \/><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/johnlpetersen.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/wp-logo.png\" alt=\"JLP Blog\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#F8F9B3\" width=\"150\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=WHQWC4YD7NE4U&amp;source=url\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/fe-donate.jpg\" alt=\"Donation\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0984495541\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0984495541&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=fu079-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/2014\/images\/cover-cosmicinternet.jpg\" alt=\"The Cosmic Internet\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1933465050\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1933465050&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=fu079-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/2014\/images\/cover-12layers.jpg\" alt=\"The Twelve Layers of DNA\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\" valign=\"top\"><a href=\"http:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/futuredition.org\/fe-images\/jp-speaking-ad.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"4\" align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"white\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\">\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1555916619?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=fu079-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1555916619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b><i>A Vision for 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change<\/i><\/b><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=fu079-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1555916619\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nby John L. Petersen<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1555916619?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=fu079-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1555916619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/2012bookcvr.jpg\" alt=\"Buy at Amazon\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div>Former senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart has said\u00a0<i>&#8220;It should be required reading for the next President.&#8221;<\/i><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.arlingtoninstitute.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/tai-logo.jpg\" alt=\"The Arlington Institute\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.futuredition.org\/fe-images\/FE-ad.jpg\" alt=\"FUTUREdition Archive\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"150\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\" width=\"100%\"><a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/dDjlaT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sign up for the FUTUREdition Email Newsletter<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jcbonline.services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">JCB Online Services<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"color: white\">*|REWARDS|*<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>View this email in your browser. \u00a0Volume 22, Number 10 &#8211; 5\/15\/19\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 FUTURE FACTS &#8211; FROM THINK LINKS DID YOU KNOW THAT&#8211; Researchers have more proof that air pollution can contribute to dementia. The question of who\u2019s responsible when AI makes a mistake is lurking at the edge of nearly every industry dabbling in the [&hellip;] <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/volume-22-number-10-5-15-19\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[46],"class_list":{"0":"post-26818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-futuredition","8":"tag-newsletter"},"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arlingtoninstitute.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}