Palestine Pulse

Will international forces enter Gaza Strip?

Article Summary
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion to deploy international forces in the Gaza Strip as a security solution has been met with stiff opposition from Palestinians.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington Feb. 15, US President Donald Trump announced in a press conference that he supports whatever Israelis and Palestinians end up agreeing upon, either a one-state solution or a two-state solution. This brings around previously discussed options, such as a confederation between the West Bank and Jordan, a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, and a binational state for Palestinians and Jews.

On Feb. 26, Netanyahu met with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in Sydney and publicly suggested, for the first time ever, that international forces take control of the Gaza Strip as a security solution to deal with Gaza, without clarifying how such an arrangement would be implemented.

On the same day, Salem Atallah, the head of the political department of the Mujahedeen Brigades, said in a press statement that bringing in international forces to take control of Gaza is a far-fetched option because “such foreign interference will be met with resistance.”

On Feb. 26, Mohammad al-Hindi, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement’s political bureau, said during a political forum in Istanbul that he believes the threats made by Israel about international forces being deployed in Gaza are part of the psychological war on Palestinians.

Hamas spokesman Abdullatif al-Kanou told Al-Monitor, “The idea of international forces in the Gaza Strip is completely unacceptable because it is a blatant interference in Palestinian internal affairs and it only aims to eradicate the Palestinian cause. Gaza was liberated from the Israeli occupation and now the blockade imposed by Israel since 2006 needs to end. Any international forces in Gaza would serve as an occupation force, as they would be providing the Israeli occupation with a free service. The Palestinian people will never accept such ideas that serve Israel.”

Israel might be aware that the idea of international forces in Gaza cannot be applied immediately, but it could have suggested it just to see how Palestinians, neighboring countries and the international community would respond. Implementing it would require approval from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas. If these two parties do not grant permission, Israel could resort to agreements with regional parties such as Egypt, which can approve the deployment of international forces in Gaza as it shares a long border with Gaza.

Abdullah Abdullah, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, told Al-Monitor, “The idea of international forces in Gaza is consistent with Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestinian state and his desire to keep the Gaza Strip and the West Bank separated, so as to eliminate the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. Palestinians might not have a say in this, and such forces could end up being imposed on them through a regional initiative, so Israel would not have to remain the only one responsible for maintaining security at the border with Gaza.”

In May 2010, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with then-US special envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell in Ramallah and informed him of the PA’s approval of NATO forces being present in the Palestinian territories. This means that, if need be, there could be a Palestinian desire to have United Nations forces on their land as part of a political solution.

Talal Abu Zarifa, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s political bureau, told Al-Monitor, “We are in favor of the deployment of international forces to protect the Palestinian people in all the lands occupied in 1967 — not only in Gaza — and avoid any conflicts between the Palestinian forces regardless of their orientation. However, Netanyahu wants these international forces to protect Israel from the resistance.”

Israel may be intending to get rid of any responsibility as far as the Gaza Strip is concerned. It seems that Israel believes the deployment of international forces in Gaza may lead to the establishment of a port and an airport, which would allow Israel to guarantee its own security and turn Gaza from an Israeli issue into a regional and international issue, similar to other international experiences such as South Sudan's. However, this raises several questions about the future of Hamas as a large armed force in Gaza.

Youssef Rizqa, the minister of information in the former Hamas government, told Al-Monitor, “Hamas will not accept Netanyahu’s suggestion to deploy international forces in Gaza, as such a move would allow Israel to separate Gaza from the West Bank and Jerusalem, and to annihilate the resistance in the Gaza Strip. This move would leave us with a model similar to the [UN Interim Force in Lebanon], whereby Israel would allow Hamas to remain as an armed force alongside international forces based on certain understandings, like Hezbollah’s case [in Lebanon]. This is because Israel would rather deal with NATO, which includes European Union countries and the United States — which Israel has close ties with — than with UN-affiliated forces.”

The Israeli government's proposal to bring international forces to Gaza comes at a time when the Palestinian scene is divided, and this may lead to imposing control on the Palestinians, increasing foreign intervention in Palestinian affairs and weakening the Palestinian option. This comes amid Israeli reports about Israel’s increased relations with Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan and some Arab Gulf countries and the decline of Israeli relations with the Palestinians.

Hossam al-Dajani, a professor of political science at Umma University in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor, “Israel suggested the deployment of international forces in Gaza to ensure its security and carry out its scheme of entrenching a state with no sovereignty. Also, there is an Israeli understanding with Egypt in order for these forces to secure the Sinai border.”

Dajani added, "However, I expect an armed clash between the Palestinian resistance and these troops, which would support Netanyahu’s vision whereby the resistance is a form of terrorism that should be fought through international forces. Also, such deployment of forces should be preceded by a strong Israeli military strike against Hamas in Gaza, one that would take it years back, in order to facilitate the entry of international troops. However, so long as Hamas has an armed arsenal, no state will agree to send its troops to Gaza.”

The Palestinians fear that the idea of international forces is part of an Israeli scheme to legitimize the occupation as part of an agreement with regional countries, and that these troops will help implement the Israeli plan to establish separate cantons, which will disconnect the Palestinian cities and towns from each other, such as in the West Bank.

The international forces may come to somehow control the Palestinians and impose Israel’s vision instead of protecting them. This could further complicate the Palestinian cause instead of solving it.

Found in: gaza strip, palestinian state, israeli occupation, hamas, international forces, australia, benjamin netanyahu


Yellowstone supervolcano ‘even more colossal’

Hot springs are surface evidence of the huge magma chamber that sits beneath Yellowstone.

By Rebecca Morelle

The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US is far larger than was previously thought, scientists report.

The findings are being presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to blow today, the consequences would be catastrophic.

The last major eruption, which occurred 640,000 years ago, sent ash across the whole of North America, affecting the planet’s climate.

Now researchers believe they have a better idea of what lies beneath the ground.

The team used a network of seismometers that were situated around the park to map the magma chamber.

The researchers are using the findings to better assess the threat that the volatile giant poses.

“But what it does tell us is more about the area to the north east of the caldera.”

“How many people would buy something on the stock market on two days of stock data.”

In another study presented at the AGU Fall Meeting, researchers have been looking at other, more ancient volcanic eruptions that happened along the same stretch of continental plate that Yellowstone’s supervolcano sits on.

Dr Marc Reichow, from the University of Leicester, said: “We looked at a time window of between 12.5 to 8 million years ago. We wanted to know how to identify these eruptions and find out how frequently they happened.”

The team found there were fewer volcanic events during this period than had been estimated, but these eruptions were far larger than was previously thought.

Dr Reichow added: “If you look at older volcanoes, it helps to understand what Yellowstone is likely to do.”

>> Yellowstone supervolcano 'even more colossal'


Current location:Free Recipes>Chicken>

 Pub date

BBQ Rosemary Potatoes Recipes

Source:  Editor:  Read:

BBQ Rosemary Potatoes Recipes--Hearty side dish; great on a fall or winter evening.

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 4
Cuisine: American
Main Ingredient: Chicken
Categories: Vegetarian, Roast, Grill, Vegetables, Side Dish

-= Ingredients =-
4 medium Potato ; cut into 1 inch chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon Garlic ; minced
Salt and pepper ; to taste

-= Instructions =-
**Prepare a charcoal grill or preheat the kitchen grill.

**Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water until tender, approximately 10 minutes. Cool slightly and thread them onto metal or bamboo skewers.

**In a small bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients. Brush the skewers with the rosemary mixture.

**Place potato skewers on the grill. Grill, basting and turning several times until the potatoes are browned and cooked. If using bamboo skewers, soak in warm water prior to use to prevent burning. If preferred the potato chunks may be cooked without the skewers on a greased BBQ plate turning to brown evenly.

PRE: Balsamic Chicken on Minted Spinach, Fennel and Grape Slaw Recipes   NEXT: Brie and Apple Chicken Breasts Recipes


Drug update

Melatonin: a new therapy for insomnia

Peter R Buchanan

In the sleep medicine field, melatonin has been investigated for the treatment of phase shift sleep disorders (such as jet lag syndrome), some parasomnias and primary insomnia, the latter of which is discussed in this article.

Article Extract

The sleep–wake cycle

The human sleep–wake cycle is driven by two primary physiological processes: the homeostatic drive (likely to be neurochemically mediated and dependent on the duration of prior wakefulness and the quality and duration of prior sleep episodes) and the circadian process.

Endogenous melatonin secretion by the pineal gland during the dark/night phase of the sleep–wake cycle is under direction from the circadian pacemaker (the suprachiasmatic nucleus) in the anterior hypothalamus and is closely associated with the human endogenous rhythm of sleep propensity. Other factors such as core body temperature are also driven by this circadian influence and are associated with sleep propensity.


Uber Facing Subpoena Over Officer-Avoiding Greyball Software

Uber is facing the possibility of being subpoenaed by the city of Portland in Oregon, local Commissioner Dan Saltzman revealed in a statement provided to OregonLive on Thursday. Portland authorities are considering filing a subpoena request may refer to: a question, a request for information a petition, a formal document demanding something that is submitted to an authority Request may also refer to against Uber as the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company failed to provide them with its “playbook may refer to: BlackBerry PlayBook, a tablet computer by BlackBerry A book that contains a script or story for a theatrical play” that they suspect contains techniques of avoiding local usually refers to something nearby, or in the immediate area Code Enforcement Officers and other regulators and specifically describes the usage of “Greyball,” a software software, or simply software, is that part of a computer system that consists of data or computer instructions, in contrast to the physical hardware from which the system is built that the company company, abbreviated co., is a legal entity made up of an association of people, be they natural, legal, or a mixture of both, for carrying on a commercial or industrial enterprise’s drivers previously used to avoid regulators and potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability fines.

The company previously admitted to using Greyball for two weeks in 2014 when it was operating in Portland without all of the necessary permits but is claiming that the software hasn’t been used by its drivers ever since. Local authorities seemingly don’t believe those claims but have so far failed to disprove them, which is why they’ve requested the company’s playbook that they believe is an integral piece of evidence in their case. The request was filed in March following a month-long investigation into the matter that was launched after may refer to a report from The New York Times is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future revealed the existence and usage of the software in Portland, with Uber failing to provide its playbook and the software to the local authorities within the time frame provided by the city city is a large and permanent human settlement. While the San Francisco-based tech giant is seemingly unwilling to cooperate with or WITH may refer to: Carl Johannes With (1877–1923), Danish doctor and arachnologist With (character), a character in D. N. Angel With (novel), a novel by Donald Harrington With (album), the investigation, Saltzman’s recent comments on the situation is a concept similar to scenario, relating to a position (location) or a set of circumstances suggest that the matter won’t be dropped and the city may try to compel Uber to yield the requested software and documents with a subpoena subpoena /səˈpiːnə/ (also subpœna) is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure in order to continue its investigation or Investigations may refer to.

Greyball is a computer program used by the computerized ride-hailing service Uber to identify government authorities and reroute Uber drivers away from them was reportedly used by Uber drivers may refer to to identify and refuse rides requested by Code Enforcement Officers and other local regulators may refer to in Portland most commonly refers to: Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in, thus effectively avoiding potential fines. The March investigation conducted by the City of Portland also encompassed Lyft, but local authorities word authority (derived from the Latin word auctoritas) can be used to mean the right to exercise power given by the State (in the form of government, judges, police officers, etc.), or by academic found no evidence of Uber or Über may refer to’s main competitor using similar techniques of avoiding regulators. It remains to be seen whether the Portland City Council agrees to request a subpoena against Uber after not filing for such a writ since 2006, but an update on the situation is expected to follow shortly.

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Articles sur Vietnam War

Affichage de 1 à 20 de 28 articles

Marines help the wounded man to an evacuation helicopter near Van Tuong,1965. AP Photo/Peter Arnett

How Vietnam dramatically changed our views on honor and war

Is there honor in a losing battle? The US military faced this question in Vietnam. Its response would eventually change how the media covered war and how Americans perceive it.

The world reacts to President-Elect Donald Trump. AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

Donald Trump and the world: Five challenges

America appears as divided over key aspects of foreign policy as it is at home. So how does President-elect Trump hope to handle that divide, and what will be the major issues facing him?

What anti-Trump activists can learn from Chicago ‘68

Weekly Dose: mefloquine, an antimalarial drug made to win wars

The Cu Chi tunnels may be the most popular of the ‘war tourism’ attractions in Vietnam.

Will tourism transform the way Australians remember the Vietnam War?

Might the rise of heritage tourism and the increasing ease of international travel lead to more of Australia’s military experiences overseas being better understood?
It’s not looking good. Reuters/Alaa Al-Marjani

Is the Iraqi army a lost cause?

Assembled at the cost of billions of dollars, Iraq's army has never amounted to much – and it's not the first foreign-built military to fail so spectacularly.

Les contributeurs les plus fréquents


Биостимулятор Torsion™

The device, created by means of nanotechnology, is intended to strengthen the biofield and
adjustment of radiation of different parts of the human body. Can be used as preventive agent for disinfection of water and changing
the structure of water. Biostimulator is based on the scientific discoveries of the “Russian Academy of Medical
Science” V.P. Kaznacheeva and academicians of the “Russian Academy of Natural Sciences”, A.F. Okhatrin, A.E. Akimov, G.I. Schipova.
The device is basically a fabric, 20×30 cm, on which was applied some special, environmentally
friendly materials, representing the expertise of our organization. The basis of operation of the device
is based on the principle reflecting kamileks radiation of the human body and energy accumulation of
radiations in the mitochondrias of human cells. Mitochondria, as we know now, is the elementary
rechargeable battery of living cells.
Due to the fact that the human body is an average of 65 trillion cells, it real to
add energy to all cells within a short time? It turns out that this is possible through the laying on of hands
on biostimulator on both sides, as the theory of Su-Jok (Prof. Pak) -  all organs of a body is
brought over connecting to the hands and feet. For example, the index finger and little finger -  in a nutshell represent left and right arms, and the thumb – connected to head and neck, etc.. Of course, in addition to the hands and feet there are
acupuncture points that are included in the system of of energy channels according to the canons of
the Chinese medicine.

Biostimulator TorsionTM. restores the human’s biofield in just 6 minutes.

Directions for use:

Bio-stimulator is placed on the back of the left hand and the right
hand covers the other side of the bio-stimulator.(2 minutes)

(photo 1)

Then the hand positions are flipped. (2 more minutes)

(photo 2)

and, ultimately, the device is placed between two palms for 2 more minutes.

(photo 3).

6 minutes are enough to replenish the energy of the whole body.
Mobile phones, computers, TVs should be off, if they are closer than 2 meters from the
bio-stimulator. If those are protected from non-ionizing radiation protection by TorsionTM chips, those
may remain on, and working.

Bio-stimulator can be used to change the structure of water. To do this, a container with water up to 10 liters should be put on the front side of the bio-stimulator for 10-12 hours.

(photo 4)

Water becomes healing.
(You can drink the water in unlimited quantities)
Biostimulator can be used for medicinal purposes, putting its face to the sore spot.
But do not apply to the heart!

Not recommended for:
• an implanted pacemaker
• cancerous tumors
• hypertensive heart disease

Apparatus for Diagnosis and Therapy
by the method of R. Folly, “Biotest”

drug testing of drugs, therapies, Vega testing.


Home Renovations: Getting Ready to Design

Home | Fire Safety | Skyscrapers

Home Emergencies | Glossary

it's very difficult to provide guidelines on what sort of renovation needs to be filed with the building department and what is considered “cosmetic.” it's our advice that you check with the building department before you do anything, even if you think it's minor. Certainly an addition to the house, the conversion of a porch or garage to a habitable room, the construction of a deck or covered porch, and the raising of the roof to provide another level must be filed in most municipalities, Painting, replacement of kitchen cabinets, the installation of new windows, and the repair of existing mechanical and electrical equipment usually don't have to be filed. We suggest you consult your local building department or talk to an architect or an engineer if you intend to do any of the following: demolish or construct partitions, invade the structure of the building in any way, move the kitchen and /or bathrooms, change the number of rooms in the apartment or house, replace the water supply, sewage disposal, or electrical system. Many municipalities require that renovation plans be filed by a licensed architect or engineer.

Now is the time to measure and draw your existing space. If you are planning a relatively major renovation, you should take detailed measurements of the existing premises and draw an accurate, scaled set of floor plans. These floor plans are important for three reasons. First, you will need them as a basis for any structural or mechanical drawings. Second, you may need to file your drawings with the local building department and get its approval before beginning construction (Inset I). Third, and most important in the design process, floor plans are very useful in understanding the way the space actually works and /or is put together. You are able to see relationships in a floor plan that are not immediately visible when you live in or walk through a space. A floor plan lets you see how the various rooms, closets, and hallways fit together, very much like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. The plan allows you to envision the living space as a whole rather than as a series of independent rooms and benefits the design process immeasurably.

For example, you may be living in an apartment with a traffic flow that necessitates your walking through the living room to get to the bedroom. Since you use the living room as an office and sometimes as a guest room, you may want to be able to close it off from the rest of the apartment. Your immediate solution to the problem is to construct a corridor on one side of the living room. This, unfortunately, narrows the living room considerably but is the only solution that immediately presents itself. On drawing the floor plan, however, you note that the hall closet and the bedroom closet back up to each other. By removing the partition between them you create a corridor from the hail to the bedroom. This eliminates the need for a hallway through the living room. New closets can be built to make up for the ones lost (Ill. 1).

Although it's possible for one person to mea sure a building, it's much more efficient to have two people (or, ideally, three people). If three people are available, one draws the diagrams and records the measurements, the second holds one end of the tape, and the third holds the working end of the tape and calls out the dimensions.

To make a set of floor plans you must first measure the interior of the house or apartment and then draw it to scale. Before measuring the premises take a pad and pencil and walk through the place drawing a rough schematic of the rooms and corridors and their interrelationships. The schematic should show door openings but need not show windows or any other details (Ill. 2). This schematic will be helpful when laying out the final plan. Next, with a rigid, retractable tape (if you are working by yourself you will need a tape about 30’ long) take the overall dimensions (length and width) of each room and all corridors and closets. Measure the distance between floor and ceiling and note if any part of the ceiling is lower than another. Note the material on the floor and walls (Ill. 3).

The next step is to make an enlarged, freehand drawing of each room in turn (including kitchen, baths, entry foyer, and closets). These schematics should show doors and arches, windows and window trim, any indentations or niches in the space, closets and closet doors, radiators, pipes (both vertical and horizontal), the location of electrical outlets and lighting fixtures (Ill. 4). Before taking detailed measurements it's a good idea to recheck overall dimensions. Double-checking your work is always useful and particularly so if you will be drafting in a place remote from the one you are measuring. it's very upsetting to have to return to retake a critical measurement when your long lines of dimensions don't add up.

Begin at one corner of the room and measure along the wall from the corner to a window opening. Record the dimensions. Next, keeping the zero end of the tape near the corner, measure and record the distance to the other side of the window opening. Continue measuring the length of the wall, always leaving the zero end of the tape at the corner (Ill. 4). (When you get to the end of the wall, check to make sure that this dimension is the same as your overall for the room.) Go back and measure the depth of the window and any projections along the way. When the first wall is finished, attack the adjacent wall repeating the steps above. Continue measuring around the room, from corner to corner, and include the closet-door openings and all indentations, niches, and column projections. When this step is completed, go back and measure the widths of the window trim and the door molding. Measure and note the depth of the window, the height to the windowsill, and the distance from the sill to the top of the window opening. Measure the width, height, and depth of the door itself and note on your sketch the direction of the door swing. For a complete reference set, measure the height of the baseboards and note any trim on the walls and ceilings. Some rooms may have beam drops, places in the ceiling where the structure shows. Note the beam drops on your drawings and approximate their dimensions (Ill. 4). Draw an elevation if you need one (Ill. 5).

Before leaving the room, measure and note the height, width, and depth of the radiator or base board. Note any pipes or valves that are visible in the space. Look for and note any electrical panel boxes, gas meters, air conditioners, or duct openings. In addition, locate each of the electrical out lets on the drawing. Draw the approximate location of the overhead lighting fixture and locate all wall switches. Turn on all of the switches to determine which outlets and fixtures each controls. Draw a broken line between switch and fixture (Ill. 4).

Draw and measure each room in turn. For the bathrooms, note all the items enumerated above. In addition, measure the lavatory cabinet and the toilet. If possible, note the exact location of the toilet on the floor. If you are partially renovating the bathroom, note the distance between the hot and cold valves of the lavatory and of the tub set.

Measure the tub (width, length, and height) and note the location of the drain and the faucets. Note the size of the tiles and whether this material covers all or only part of the walls.

In the kitchen, note the width of the cabinets and locate the sink and the gas outlet.

In order to make a hard-line drawing of what you have measured, you will need the following drafting equipment:

• Drawing board about 24” x 30” with a resilient surface such as chipboard (resembling shirt cardboard)

• T square long enough to cover the length of the board

• Architect’s scale (one that has 1/4” and 1/2” scales)

• Pencil and eraser

Triangle (at least 12” long, either 45-degree or 30-degree – 60-degree)

• Drafting or masking tape

• Roll of tracing paper

This is a minimum list and the items can be purchased at most good art supply stores. Don’t buy expensive varieties of the equipment listed unless you intend to make drafting your career. Other drafting equipment that might be useful: an erasing shield, drafting brush, bathroom fixture template, mechanical drafting pencil and the corresponding pencil sharpener.

The architect’s scale divides the inch into ‘Ao’s. Look at the end of the scale and note the markings: 16, 1/4, 3/16 and at the opposite end: 1/2, 1/8, etc. Look at the line of numbers to the left of the 1/4 marking: 0, 2, 4, 6, and so on. The 1/4” scale divides the inch into four parts. Architects use this scale to represent feet, letting 1/4” represent 1’. The measurement from the U to the 4 is actually 1” but using the scale 1/4” = 1’-0” it represents 4’. To use the 1/4” scale to represent 27’-6”, draw a line from the 0 to midway between the 26” and the 28” mark. Next measure back from the 0 and count six fine lines, which represents 6”. The line (which is actually 6" long) is 27’-6" at the 1/4” scale.

The T square is used to draw a series of parallel horizontal lines. The cross end of the T square slides up and down the left (or right) side of the drawing board. The T square is held in place b the left hand while the right hand draws the horizontal line. The triangle is used to draw a series of parallel vertical lines. The short side of the triangle rests on the top edge of the T square and slides along it. Hold the assembly in place with your left hand while using the vertical edge of the triangle to guide your line. If this is uncomfortable, invert the triangle.

To begin a drafting project, cut a sheet of paper from the roll and place it on the table. Make sure the lower edge of the paper lines up with the bottom edge of the T square before taping the four corners to the drawing board. Generally, zoning laws regulate building location, e, size, and setbacks.

Ordinances prohibit the construction of a factory in a residential neighborhood (or a residence in industrial zone). Some businesses will not be permitted in a strictly residential zone. Many municipalities allow only dentists and doctors to conduct business on a residential street. Even if you are allowed to practice your trade adjacent to your home you may be required to provide on-site parking for your clients’ automobiles.

Zoning laws often prohibit the renovation of a single-family residence into a two-family house if the district is restricted to one-family usage. (The conversion of a multifamily building into a single- family residence would be permitted.)

Most districts have ordinances that cover building height, overall size, and setbacks from the property lines. Many areas limit the height of the building to two or two and a half stories or a specific number of feet. In some communities houses larger than a specified size can't be constructed unless the property is oversized. Zoning ordinances often limit the %age of lot cover age. As an example, you may not be permitted to construct an addition to your existing house if the new construction falls outside of the 40’ front, 30’ rear, or 15’ side property setback lines or if the total building (original house plus addition) covers more than 25 % of the lot.

Before laying out your floor plan, determine the scale you will use and the paper size required (Inset II, above). If the whole house or apartment measures 40’ x 100’, you will need a piece of paper larger than 10” X 25” if you are using the 1/4” scale. If you choose the 1/2” scale, the paper will have to be larger than 20” X 50” to fit the entire plan on one sheet. Generally, architects use a scale of 1/4” = 1’-0” for the floor plan and the 1/2” scale for separate, detailed plans of the kitchen and bathrooms.

Begin with your sketch of the overall dimensions of the house or apartment. First, block out the major dimensions of the whole plan before detailing any single room. (All too often an inexperienced drafter starts at one end of the paper and draws room after room in great detail only to find that he has run out of paper and can’t fit the whole plan on the sheet.) Measure the entire length of the floor plan (in scale) on the paper and make sure it's centered. Do the same for the width of the plan (Ill. 6). Begin at one corner of the plan and draw the partitions of the first room. Allow 6” for the partitions and walls around the room, and draw the adjacent rooms and halls. Complete the floor plan with light lines and check all dimensions to see if they conform. If there are any discrepancies, make sure you transferred the dimensions correctly from the sketch to this drawing. If that is not the problem, you might have made an error in taking the original dimensions. If there are large blocks of empty space between the partitions that you can’t account for (and you did not make any errors), it's likely that there are pipes or flues hidden in these chases.

If the overall plan is correct, go back to your detailed room sketches and fill in the door and the window widths and any indentations or articulations in the space. Go on to the next room and complete the drawing. Note all critical dimensions, especially in areas you plan to change. When you complete all of the rooms, go back and add light fixtures, switches, electrical outlets, pipes, radiators, fireplaces, and other architectural details (Ill. 7). The symbols for these items can be found in Ill. 4.

Before investing a great deal of time in fruitless labor, you should be cognizant that a number of outside factors may restrict your design freedom. If you are considering changing the usage of the building to anything other than a one-family house or if you are considering constructing an addition to the building, you may be affected by the zoning laws (Inset III, above). In addition, most municipalities (but not all) have adopted building codes and guide lines that may restrict your design options still further. The codes are designed to protect you from structural collapses, undue fire risk, and poisonous building materials. In almost every case the restrictions make a good deal of sense. Make sure you have a copy of the building code governing your municipality (and a copy of the national building code) if you are planning anything more than a cosmetic renovation* (Inset IV). Further more, many states have passed energy conservation codes which may limit the number, size, and glazing of windows, dictate the composition of the exterior walls of an addition, and affect the design and selection of fireplaces, heating systems, and exterior doors.

Be sure to call local and state authorities to determine what codes and restrictions are in effect for renovations and /or additions. Make sure you have the most recent updates to these documents. it's likely that the township you live in will re quire that you file plans for anything more than a cosmetic renovation (Inset I). You may also have waste-disposal pipes are not as easy to deal with, especially in a multistoried building. Waste lines are 3” or more in diameter and run vertically, carrying sewage down to the cellar and odoriferous gases up and out through the roof. A waste line can be tapped on any floor along its route as long as it's large enough to carry the accumulated waste of the bathrooms and kitchens along its line. Since the system relies on gravity (rather than a pump) the horizontal pipes carrying the sewage from the plumbing fixtures (toilets and washing machines) to the vertical stack must be pitched slightly downward to allow the watery waste to flow properly. Because of the pitch of the pipe it's impractical (and sometimes impossible) to locate toilets far away from an existing vertical stack. In a one- or two-story house you may decide to install a new plumbing stack to accommodate a bathroom far removed from the existing

plumbing facilities. If you are renovating an apartment on the tenth floor of a high rise, it's almost impossible to install a new stack.

The electrical and heating systems are less critical. It may be expensive to relocate heavy electric appliances or to expand the capacity of the air conditioning service, but it usually can be done.

In a multistoried building the superintendent is often able to tell you where the main electrical risers, hot- and cold-water pipes, waste lines, and intercom are located. More often than not you will have to investigate for yourself by chiseling small exploratory holes into the suspected areas. You can suspect any wall that is particularly fat, or adjacent to the intercom or behind the plumbing fixtures, or near the electrical panel box.

Part Two of this book explores in greater detail the structural and mechanical systems of a building and will provide further information on how to locate and identify the various components of these systems and explain how they work. Those sections should be studied before you get too far into the design process. In addition, we urge you not to rely on the elementary structural and mechanical education provided in this or any other book. Hire an architect or engineer to review your structural plans and consult with a licensed engineer and plumber before lifting a crowbar.

If anything is likely to rein in your design creativity it's the ultimate price tag of the renovation. To make matters worse, the cost of the total project may be very difficult to estimate in advance. One way to get an idea of what a project is going to cost is to call in a general contractor who has done similar work. This sounds like a good idea but it often backfires. Most contractors are very reluctant to give any estimates at all unless you provide them with very detailed plans and specifications. If a contractor does go out on a limb to give you a price on the basis of your verbal description (or sketchy plans), he is not in any way bound to his “ballpark figure” when you are ready with final drawings. For some reason the price often appreciates considerably between verbal description and hard-line drawings.

Another way to estimate the cost of the renovation is to ask the contractor for square-footage prices. Often a contractor will estimate that a relatively uncomplicated kitchen with few frills will cost so much per square foot and a luxury kitchen will cost so much per square foot. This will not be a very accurate estimate either, since you probably consider your kitchen design to be very basic and simple, whereas the contractor may think it falls into the luxury range.

A third way to estimate the cost of construction before the drawings are completed is to ask around and find out how much similar renovations cost. Let us say you want to replace your kitchen and bathrooms with creations that were inspired by magazine photographs. You have budgeted $15,000 for the renovation and intend to hire a general contractor to do the work. Many of your friends and neighbors have renovated their kitchens and bathrooms and you want to use one of their contractors. If your neighbors paid $60,000 for similar work it's unlikely that your budget of $15,000 is realistic. Perhaps you should reconsider the scope of the project, or consider doing most of the construction yourself.

The best way to get an estimate of construction costs is to give completed drawings and specifications to a general contractor (he will be adding 15 to 25 % of the construction cost for over head and profit).

If you are doing the construction yourself, be careful not to bite off more than you can chew in terms of both your finances and your construction skills. it's a depressing experience to live in a home that is in a permanent state of partial demolition because the renovator hasn’t the time, the money, or the skills to complete the project.

Another factor that should cause you to pause before demolishing the critical elements of your house or apartment (such as the kitchen and bathrooms) is where you are going to live while all of this is going on. Demolition work of any kind produces a great deal of fine dust that tends to get into everything (even closed closets and drawers). Renovation projects often take much longer than originally anticipated, which means you may be spending a lot of time with the dust and without a kitchen. If possible, find another place to live while the renovation is taking place. If this is unfeasible, be sure not to demolish all of the bathrooms at once. You will be able to set up a temporary kitchen by plugging in a refrigerator and a hot plate, but dirty dishes will have to be washed in the bathroom lavatory.

Some final words of caution: If you are renovating your kitchen or your only bathroom, be sure to order and receive everything needed in advance of demolition. If you are planning to re place windows or remove parts of the roof or exterior walls, schedule the renovation for the summer, when it's likely to be warmest and driest.

Prev: Style and Character
Next: Designing the Renovation

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How to explore the microscopic world

Today's microscopes provide a view of the unseen. Shown above: a hydrothermal worm, imaged with an electron microscope.

Ever since Robert Hooke first made his beautiful sketches of magnified insects, scientists have been peering at the world through microscopes.

The microscopic world generally refers to things humans can't see with the naked eye. But thanks to microscopes, scientists have the tools to visualize the detailed structures and dynamic processes inside living cells. Today's microscopes can reveal everything from the secretion of insulin in pancreatic cells to the chemical crossfire in slices of living brain tissue.

The Dutch glasses maker Hans Jansen and his son Zacharias invented the first compound microscope in 1595, according to letters by the Dutch envoy to the court of France. The microscope consisted of a tube with a lens at either end, in which changing the distance between the lenses changed the magnification.

Hooke used a compound microscope to create the famous sketches in his tome "Micrographia," published in 1665. Dutch draper and microscope maker Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was also instrumental, being the first to describe sperm cells and bacteria in droplets of water. [Nature Under Glass: Gallery of Victorian Microscope Slides]

Today's microscopes
But modern microscopes have come a long way since the days of Hooke and van Leeuwenhoek. "Nobody's looking with their eye anymore -- everything's digital," said biophysicist David Piston of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

More On This...

The main advance in microscopy has been in the cameras, Piston told LiveScience. The electronic light sensors in cameras, CCDs, are much more sensitive than the human eye. The consumer camera market has driven the price of a good microscope camera down from about $100 thousand to $30 thousand, Piston said.

Modern microscopes come in three flavors: optical microscopes, electron microscopes and scanning probe microscopes.

Within optical microscopes, there are wide-field microscopes and confocal microscopes. Wide-field scopes include your basic light microscope, which has a lens or lenses to magnify visible light transmitted or reflected by a sample. They're good for looking at single layers of cells or thin tissues, Piston said.

The main advantage of optical microscopes is their ability to image living cells. But they are limited to a resolution of about 200 nanometers, where one nanometer is a billionth of a meter; for comparison, a sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick.

To see finer details, scientists employ electron microscopes, which produce images using a beam of electrons instead of light. These have much better resolution than optical microscopes, because the wavelength of electrons is about 100,000 times shorter than visible light. However, this type of microscope can't reveal living cells, because the preparation steps or high-energy electron beams kill them.

Scanning probe microscopes use a physical probe to scan a sample and produce an image. These scopes enable scientists to view things on the atomic level or smaller.

Oh the things you'll see
The uses of microscopes span from the mundane to the arcane. A typical use for wide-field microscopy might be observing how a protein called a transcription factor binds to part of a cell's DNA to activate a specific gene. Improper binding of transcription factors plays a role in many cancers, for example.

Neuroscientists often use confocal microscopy to visualize activities at the synapses between neurons. They can even look at living slices of an animal's brain, Piston said.

Electron microscopes provide a stunning level of detail that reveals fine structures. Scientists have used these microscopes to create the iconic close-up images of red blood cells or human hairs.

But ultimately, microscopy's importance lies in the dynamics of living cells, Piston said. "The ability to look at how things move around will really revolution how we think about cells."


Research Areas

Genetic Disorders

A genetic disorder is a disease caused by an abnormality in an individual’s genome (an individual’s genetic material). Abnormalities can range from an unwelcome mutation (an alteration of a gene), as are most cancers, to the addition or subtraction of an entire chromosome or set of chromosomes.

The defective genes are often inherited from the person’s parents. This kind of genetic disorder is known as a hereditary disease. A mutated gene is passed down through a family and each generation of children can inherit the gene that causes the disease.

There are four different types of genetic disorders: single-gene, multifactorial, chromosomal and mitochondrial.

This type is caused by changes or mutations that occur in the DNA sequence of one gene. When a gene is mutated, resulting in an enzyme or protein not being produced or having altered functionality product can no longer carry out its normal function, a disorder can result.

This type is associated with the effects of multiple genes in combination with lifestyle and environmental factors. Multifactoral disorders are also difficult to study and treat because the specific factors that cause most of these disorders have not yet been identified.

This type is caused by a change in the number or structure of chromosomes. Changes that affect entire chromosomes or segments of chromosomes can cause problems with growth, development, and function of the body’s systems.

This type of inheritance is a relatively rare type of genetic disorder. It is caused by mutations in the nonchromosomal DNA of mitochondria.

Individualized Medicine or Pharmacogenomics

As human beings we have single genetic blueprints, which affect our risks for illness and how our bodies respond to disease. Each person who has a disease reacts to that disease in his or her own way. However, still nowadays, the treatment it is not totally individualized. Pharmacogenomics is the science that studies how individuals react to medications.

Pharmacogenomics segment promises to offer personalized medicine treatments based on a person’s genetic profile. Pharmacogenomics allows us to identify sources of an individual’s profile of drug response and predict the best possible treatment option for this individual (dosage, for instance). In addition to new possibilities of discovery and development of a drug, Individualized Medicine is also important to ensure better detection, prevention, treatment, and hopefully eradication of diseases.

• Using medication for a specific need
• Reduce adverse reactions to medications
• Safer dosing options
• Improvements in drug discovery and development
• Reduced healthcare costs and medical expenditures
• Better diagnoses and earlier disease intervention


Vulnerable Times Call for Vulnerable Measures

The big Hub announcement this week is that Joe, a Hub leader, our in-house coffee connoisseur, and generally talented extraordinaire will be leaving his full time role in the Hub at the end of this week.  Please come to the Hub to celebrate his work and his awesomeness today at 4pm, we really are going to miss him!  Today and tomorrow, we also have Doug Solomon in the Hub doing Design Team training!

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about what Joe's departure means for the Hub.  Joe has been here since the Hub first began, and his departure makes me curious to understand why the Hub team lives and breathes the way it does.  What makes the Hub tick?  What allows us to be quirky, random, empathetic, collaborative, and sometimes useful and productive (I hope!)?  I don't think I can talk coherently about intricate team dynamics in a short blog post, but I have started to think separately about one reason that seems to hit pretty close to home—vulnerability.

But what is that?  I don’t think that I have much of an answer, which is why I was happy to stumble across a TedTalk that could shine a little light on the matter.  Brené Brown roots her exploration of vulnerability in connection—explaining how connection is the first and foremost way that we find meaning in our lives.  We strive to find connections with people or concepts in order to find some greater meaning, in order to do something bigger than ourselves.  But, there is something that stands in the way—vulnerability.  What does that mean?  It is a fear of judgment, of tough decisions, of daunting issues.  It is also that nagging voice in our heads saying “I am not smart/attractive/experienced/etc. enough to be a part of this group”—that consistent fear that for some reason you are not worthy of some connection.  So, Brown set out to understand what it is that makes people feel worthy—what it is that allows them to face this fear.  What gives them the courage to embrace vulnerability?

In her research of people who were able to embrace vulnerability and build a strong sense of worthiness, she found two things—two simple things, but two powerful things.  Two things that I think are important to read slowly and deliberately (so please read slowly).  First, these people embraced authenticity—“they were willing to let go of who they thought they should be in order to be who they were”.  Second, “they believed that what made them vulnerable made them beautiful. They didn't talk about vulnerability being comfortable, nor did they really talk about it being excruciating…they just talked about it being necessary.”

While writing these quotes, I find myself unable to stop reading them (that’s my plug to have you read them again).  To me, the impact is not simply that she relays these findings so eloquently, it is that these are her findings after 6 years of research and listening to people—they are not a dream for the future but a reflection of part of the present.  That means we can find it.  That means we can connect with it.  That means we can really do it.

To watch the whole ted talk, click here!

How does this tie back to the Hub?  Well, I would comfortably say that the Hub can be a strange group.  Many people may have heard of or done the stoke circles exercise at some point to inspire creativity—“stoke exercises” are pretty much synonymous with icebreakers, team builders, etc.—, but the circles exercise is just the tamest of the stokes that we do.  We do others that involve lots of movement, role-playing, and things where we undoubtedly have to be comfortable feeling a bit awkward and embarrassed in front of the team.

For example, have you ever made random noises with your team?  Have you ever played the role of a caveman trying to understand the modern world as explained by your team?  Well, I have had a chance to, as a part of these stokes.  On the forefront, stokes force you to be creative, but more importantly they focus on making you all feel comfortable with one another.  The stokes give you a space to be ridiculous and open.  They help you eradicate the fear of judgement or embarrassment, which opens you to thinking in many different ways.  I admit that not all stokes are for everyone, but they all find a way to break down barriers.  They don’t just make you vulnerable.  They make you embrace it—dare I say enjoy it?

To tie it back together a bit, I do want to bring this back to Joe.  He has been a huge reason why the culture within the Hub readily embraces vulnerability.  If you have ever heard him rant about coffee, movies, music, tasker, etc, he is full of both amazingly relevant and random information.  If you have ever been in a brainstorm session with him, you know that he always has some of the craziest and most inspiring ideas in the group.  He has continuously been willing to be open, listen to stories, weather tough storms, be encouraging, and be positive.  He showed me from day one that working in the Hub means being your full self and nothing less.  So, thank you Joe—for being you, for embracing vulnerability, and for setting this stage for us.  We wouldn't be where we are without you!

 Andrew Yin

Please email to share your feedback, experiences, feelings, comments, or ideas.  Also, send an email if you want to join our feedback team and are willing to be interviewed for our future projects!


52.  A binary random variable X takes the value of 1 with probability 1/3. X is input to a cascade of 2 independent identical binary symmetric channels (BSCs) each with crossover probability 1/2. The outputs of BSCs are the random variables Y1 and Y2 as shown in the figure.

The value of H(Y1) + H(Y2) in bits is___________.

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An insight into the most ancient area of the island, Castello. Here you will meet the Arsenale, the symbol of the medieval marine force of Venice, with its uncorrupted fortress walls built on the water. Venice’s formidable fortress-shipyard during the powerful Venetian Republic.

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75€ each

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Expired Giveaway: The Chefs Collaborative Cookbook

The Chefs Collaborative Cookbook

Fill in the giveaway information, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of The Chefs Collaborative Cookbook: Local, Sustainable, Delicious: Recipes from America’s Great Chefs by Chefs Collaborative and Ellen Jackson (Taunton Press, 2013).  (ARV $40)

A group of chefs walks into a bar…. Okay, that’s probably not exactly how it went, but The Chefs Collaborative Cookbook is what you end up with when you get chefs like Rick Bayless, Susan Feniger, Michael Romano and Alice Waters together with an idea to get Americans to rediscover the joy of cooking and eating fresh food. The Chefs Collaborative is now 12,000 strong and has started a revolution of supporting small farms and learning to eat healthy, sustainable food. Their cookbook features over 115 recipes from over 115 of America’s best chefs; recipes that most home cooks will be able to prepare with ease. Along with the recipes, such as Chicken with Moroccan Spice Rub, the authors provide information about the principles of sustainability around the main ingredients. Once you read the recipes, you’ll be joining the revolution.


Using the Bell Curve to Make Accurate Generalizations

While understanding that every individual deserves to be treated as an individual

I love the bell curve. I appreciate how it allows me to understand the characteristics of a population without making untrue blanket generalizations. For example, I would never say to be true, “Men are taller than women,” because there are so many individual women that are taller than individual men. I could look at two bell curves, though, that plot height distribution of adult men and women in the U.S., and see that the one for men centers around 5'10", whereas the one for women centers around 5'5". So I could say something like, “Over 50% of adult men in the U.S. are taller than 5'7”, and 50% of adult women in the U.S. are shorter than 5'7",” and it would be true. If I had better math skills, I might even be able to calculate the odds that any individual man picked at random would be taller than any woman picked at random.

From http://www.usablestats.com/lessons/normal

When I hear people make generalizations like, “Rich people are greedy,” or “Mexican immigrants are criminals,” I immediately reject it. To my way of thinking, as long as some of the people in the group don’t fit the description, it’s an invalid statement. I hate it when people see an example of certain individuals behaving a certain way, then say their whole group acts that way. Sure, some men are stoic and have difficulty expressing their emotions, but it doesn’t mean all men are like that. Sure, some women get debilitating menstrual cramps every month, but it doesn’t mean all women are like that. I like to interact with individuals as individuals, treating each one as a mystery waiting to be explored with curiosity and open-mindedness.

I think this is a great way to lead life, yet it does hamstring me a bit when it comes to debating public policy. One thing I’ve noticed in life is that every group has people that are kind, every group has people that are bigots, every group has people that are compassionate, every group has people who lack empathy. One way I think of it shorthand is that every group has “good” people and “bad” people, even as I understand that the qualities I think of as “good” — kindness, friendliness, compassion, empathy, consideration of others — and those I think of as “bad” — selfishness, narcissism, cruelty, close-mindedness, lashing out without thinking — are present in all people some of the time, and different situations will bring out different sides of people. In my experience, nobody is wholly good or wholly bad, so that phrase “every group has good and bad people” comes with a huge disclaimer — it’s a simple phrase that points to a complex truth without being the truth itself.

Given that every group has people acting anywhere along the spectrum from selfish cruelty to loving giving kindness, it can be difficult to assess the efficacy of that group’s culture. I have a friend who shared with me that she doesn’t feel as comfortable around Muslims as around Christians, because her understanding of their religion is that it promotes violence in the form of jihad, so Muslims are more likely to be violent than non-Muslims. I shared with her my perspective that the Christian religion has also been used to promote violence, from the Crusades to the Inquisition to killing doctors that perform abortion, so I fear Muslims as little as I fear Christians, because I think the vast majority of both groups are regular people leading regular lives, and it’s not fair to judge the whole group by the visible, vocal minority.

Although that is true for me, it did make me wonder if it would be possible to compare Islam and Christianity to see if one is more likely to produce violent behavior, separate from other various influences such as what country a person is born into, how poor they are, whether they grew up in a war-torn country or a peaceful one, or how much education they have. The idea I’m playing around with is that maybe some cultures are better than others at producing “good” behavior. Even though I know every group will have a full range of “good” and “bad” people, so I don’t want to make a blanket judgement like “Christians are good,” or “Christians are bad,” perhaps it’s possible to look at a bell curve distribution of behavior among Christians and behavior among non-Christians and see how the bell curves compare. With the example of men and women, although there are many women who are taller than men, it is possible to see that the male population averages a taller height than the female population.

It could be fruitful to do a similar analysis with groups. Which groups have the highest percentage of loving kindness? Which groups have the lowest? Is there a correlation between loving kindness and wealth? Loving kindness and a particular spiritual belief? Loving kindness and a particular country? Loving kindness and a college education? If we were able to pinpoint the factors that lead to more loving kindness, we could work to increase those factors and improve our culture.

Now, I can’t do those studies. I don’t have the funding, and I’m not sure how loving kindness could be measured objectively to create a statistical base to analyze. So I will continue to assess the loving kindness of people on an individual basis, and seek to maximize it in myself and in my companions, while striving to notice and negate any prejudice I have that an individual is more or less likely to be loving and kind based on the group to which they belong.

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Case study 5: Giving feedback

Two individuals giving each other feedback

In most cases we tend to know when behaviour at work is bullying or undermining in nature. The problem is identifying exactly why there is a problem and what solutions might help.

A useful framework for categorising the nature of bullying and undermining, and also for exploring solutions, has been devised (Parry-Smith et al, 2015). The framework has five central themes: Behaviours, Environments, Methods, Outcomes and Solutions (BEMOS).

Examples of the concepts for each category can include:

  • Behaviours – lack of support, disrespect, humiliation
  • Environments – public, meetings, corridor
  • Methods – ad hoc, global email, bypassing decision makers, ignoring opinion
  • Outcomes – reduced confidence, increased anxiety
  • Solutions – training, coping strategies, resilience, peer support.

Using a framework can help explore the reasons and solutions to a complex problem.

Next time you see bullying and undermining, use the BEMOS framework to help reflect on the situation and plan improvements.

Feedback is crucial to workplace based behaviours. If done well it allows increased confidence and resilience in the workplace, but if done poorly it can be destructive and have negative outcomes.

This case study features two scenarios. The first shows an example of poor feedback. The second scenario gives an example of improved feedback between a consultant and a trainee, following a poor obstetric outcome on a night shift.

Parry-Smith W, Morse L, Sutherland A, et al. Bullying and undermining; a threat to both patient care and medical personnel wellbeing? A cross sectional survey of the undergraduates, trainees and consultants in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the West Midlands. MedEdPublish 2015;6:19 [subscription required].


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Civil Disagreement (BOK)

Edward Langerak

399,00 39900
Sendes vanligvis innen 5-15 dager
How can we agree to disagree in today's pluralistic society, one in which individuals and groups are becoming increasingly polarized by fierce convictions that are often at odds with the ideas of others? Civil Disagreement: Personal Integrity in a Pluralistic Society shows how we can cope with diversity and be appropriately open toward opponents even while staying true to our convictions. This accessible and useful guide discusses how our conversations and arguments can respect differences and maintain personal integrity and civility even while taking stances on disputed issues. The author examines an array of illustrative cases, such as debates over slavery, gay marriage, compulsory education for the Amish, and others, providing helpful insights on how to take firm stands without denigrating opponents. The author proposes an approach called "perspective pluralism" that honors the integrity of various viewpoints while avoiding the implication that all reasonable views are equally acceptable or true. Civil Disagreement offers a concise yet comprehensive guide for students and scholars of philosophical or religious ethics, political or social philosophy, and political science, as well as general readers who are concerned about the polarization that often seems to paralyze national and international politics.

Språk Engelsk Engelsk Innbinding Heftet
Utgitt 2014 Forfatter Edward Langerak
ISBN 9781626160330
Antall sider 184 Dimensjoner 15,2cm x 22,9cm x 1,8cm
Vekt 272 gram Leverandør Bertram Trading Ltd


5 Important Anthropological Sites in India

India is a land of rich ancient civilisation. Through various artefacts, archaeological findings and of course books, we have studied a great deal about the nature of mankind that existed in the ancient times. History loudly speaks that India was one of the most progressive civilisations in the ancient time. India was known for its architectural miracles including bridges, temples and fortified cities. Even today, ancient forts built during the 15th and 16th centuries stand strongly on the Indian soil. There is a strong archaeological proof that practices like rock cutting; carving, painting and mining were performed successfully in the ancient India.
Monuments like Iron Pillar in Mehrauli, Ajanta Caves, Khajuraho Temple and Qutab Minar speak of the magnificence of Indian architecture. In the recent times, travellers visiting to India have shown a keen interest towards Indian History and ancient civilisation.

It is a known fact that the study of anthropological origins of a country is the most tested method to understand its history and civilisation. However, the list of anthropological sites in India is so long that it can easily confuse a traveller. For all you travellers out there who are planning to visit India, here is a to-the-point account of five important anthropological sites that you should not miss on your trip to India.

1. Ajanta Caves
Photo by Leon Yaakov, CC BY 2.0
Location: Aurangabad District
State: Maharashtra

Ajanta Caves are 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which are situated on the outskirts of Aurangabad city. Built between the 2nd century B.C and 480 CE, Ajanta Caves are home to artistic figures of Buddha and have been defined as the living masterpieces of Buddhist religious art.

In the ancient times, these caves were assigned to Buddhist Monks for their living, education and worship. Paintings and sculptures included in the caves have been described as ‘the finest surviving examples of Indian Art’ by the Archaeological Survey of India. Since 1983, Ajanta Caves have been declared as ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ and hold a crucial value in Indian history.

2. Nalanda
Photo by Prince Roy, CC BY 2.0

Nalanda University, Nalanda is popularly characterized as the most ancient university in the history of Indian civilisation. Nalanda’s history began as an important trade centre because of its close proximity to Magadha, the ancient capital city. It is believed that the entry of Gautama Buddha and Mahavira in Nalanda led to its development into a spiritual and learning centre.

This ancient hub of learning attracted students and scholars from faraway places like Tibet, China, Korea and Central Asia. After some revival efforts from the Government of India, Nalanda was deemed to be a university in 2006. Historians visit this place to understand the ancient Indian Education System.

3. Dholavira
Photo by Travelling Slacker, CC BY 2.0
Location: Kutch District
State: Gujarat

Dholavira is the living example of the most ancient and grandest civilisation of Indian culture i.e Harappan/ Indus Valley Civilisation. The area of full site is spanned across 250 acres in the Khadir belt in the Great Rann of Kutch. This site was discovered by J.P Joshi in the 1960s and has been under excavation by the Archaeological Survey of India since 1990.

Dholavira is a very fine example of the ancient Indian architectural brilliance. This site contains one of the world’s oldest water harvesting system. Dholavira takes you back in time through the remains of ancient water reservoirs, fossilized trees and stones present there. It is a must visit site for history buffs.

4. Konark Sun Temple
Photo by Achilli Family, CC BY 2.0
Location: Konark
State: Odisha

Konark Sun Temple is often regarded as one of the most magnificent examples of architecture in the state of Odisha. The temple captures your imagination with its brilliantly carved rock pillars and wheels. Dedicated to the sun-god or ‘Surya Deva’, this temple is a symbol of mathematical efficiency of our ancient scholars.
Sun Temple is also known for its erotic carvings on the roofs and walls. It is believed that these carvings depict the everyday life of men and women of the ancient age. One can also find sculptured horses, warriors and other animals in the form of carvings on the walls.

The temple has three images of the Sun God which are so placed as to receive the rays of the sun at dawn, noon and sunset. The audience hall, dining hall and dancing hall of the temple are among the surviving structures of the temple which are present today. Konark Sun Temple is a beautiful amalgam of science, artistry and culture that persisted in ancient India.

5. Lothal

Lothal - Gujarat, India

Lothal – Gujarat, India

Photo by Emmanuel DYAN, CC BY 2.0

Location: Dholka, Ahmedabad
State: Gujarat

Lothal is known as one of the oldest planned cities in the sub-continent. Also termed as the oldest port town of India, Lothal was a trading point for the export of precious gems and beads to Africa and West Asia. This site is a rare example of ancient town planning. The structures of marketplace, bathrooms and toilets excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India here have reassured the fact that Lothal was a planned township.

Anthropological sites in India have a tremendous potential to take you back in the ancient era. Through their carvings, paintings and rock cuttings, the above mentioned sites give you a first-hand account of the life that existed in ancient India.
What are you waiting for now? Pack your bags and go explore the rich civilisation that India was.

Author Bio:
Rohit is a travel blogger at Trans India Travels. He has an intense love for history and can be regularly spotted at various ancient sites. He believes that travelling is an important means of intellectual growth and everyone should pursue this activity with an open heart.


San Diego Union, September 12, 1911, page 4:

    San Diego is about to be brought on a par with large eastern and European cities in the matter of advancement.
    The San Diego Telephone Herald company has just been organized for the purpose of installing a complete news and amusement service in this city.
    Invented in Hungary, where the system is known as the "Telephone Hirmondo", it has been brought to this city to be established as the Telephone Herald.
    Just as modem science has brought gas, water, electricity and other conveniences into the home, so the Telephone Herald brings news, music, songs, sermons and lectures directly into the homelife of its patrons, to be enjoyed at no greater effort than is now necessary to take the receiver down from the ordinary 'phone and listen.
    The Telefon Hirmondo has been in operation in Budapest for nearly ten years, but not until lately did the owners of the invention consent to part with the American rights. How the system works in the Hungarian capital, and how it will work in San Diego when installation is perfected, is well described in an official report of Hon. Paul Nash, U. S. consul general at Budapest, as follows:
    "The service begins at 8:45 a. m., when a buzzing noise loud enough to be heard across a large room and lasting for fifteen seconds announces the correct time. At 9:30 the day's program of important events is announced: that is to say, the ceremonies, lectures, plays, races, etc. At 10 and 11 o'clock stock quotations and general news items are given.
    "At noon a second announcement of the correct time, followed by parliamentary news and general items of interest. At 12:45 o'clock quotations from the local, Vienna and Berlin exchanges and general news. At 2 o'clock more parliamentary and general news. and 3 p. m. the closing prices of the stocks, meteorological forecast, local personals and small items, and in winter the condition of the various skating places. At 4 p. m. court and miscellaneous news. From 4:10 to 6:10 military music from one of the great cafes or gardens. In the evening the subscriber may choose between the royal opera or one of the theaters, and later music by one of the tzigone orchestras.
    "This program is sufficiently varied to satisfy the desires of all classes of subscribers, and in general the service seems to give the utmost satisfaction. Its advantages are so manifest that no comment appears necessary."--Adv.


Glaucoma Optic Nerve Effects

There are different ways in which one can take care of the glaucoma situation when it is in the early stages. This is one eye condition that many people do not want to have but they need to face the situation and face the situation. One needs to find out if they have the glaucoma optic nerve, which will end up causing total blindness or whether it is in the early stages and one can actually salvage the situation. One needs to make sure that they will end up getting the right treatment from the right doctors.

Some of the eye specialists are not familiar with testing the glaucoma optic nerve and this may end up causing server damage. One needs to keep in mind certain factors when they are searching for the hospital of choice. The medical practitioner needs to have the relevant training and this will lead to proper tests and diagnosis of the condition. This does not matter if you are in the early stages or the later stages but when the optic nerve is blocked, urgent measures need to be taken to prevent further blocking of the system.

When the eye is hurt internally, there are fluids, which are produced and when they do not get the right drainage channel, they clot inside the eye and one starts to have a faulty vision. Some people result to scratching it and this leads to the glaucoma optic nerve, which amount to pressure. When the optic nerve is under too much pressure, it stops working since the fluids, inside the eye, block it.

With the latest testing equipments, most of the medal centers have the capacity to know extend to poor drainage in the eye and the amount of pressure exacted on the fluids. This makes it easier when one undergoes the surgical operation to clear off the excess fluids and leave the optic nerve with less pressure. Some people undergo eye operations but do not remember to go for further checkups. When the wound is healing, it is prone to further scaring, and this leads to further emission of fluids and this later builds up pressure on the optic nerve. You need to make sure that you get the perfect eye care solutions when you undergo different eye operations. Routine checkups is essential even if you are not under any attack and this will make it much easier to get the appealing results, and once there are signs of glaucoma, you get immediate assistance to prevent further damage

The optic nerve is the root of sight and when it is blocked, one has no capacity to see. Many people think that this is a condition of the aged but this is not the case. One has the capacity to get it even when they are young but since there is less pressure on the optic nerve, it takes a long time before the signs start to show. To prevent this, you need to make sure you have a thorough check up of glaucoma optic nerve on a regular basis.

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Sunday, 14 June 2015

On The Nature Of Evolution

The first ever tree of life, as drawn by Charles Darwin. For Stephen
Jay Gould this would represent just one possible history of life
Evolution polarises those who believe in it and those who do not. Its believers can also be split depending upon their view of how the phenomenon operates. The American palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould famously penned some of the most controversial theories in evolution, including the view that the story of life has played out randomly.

If we were to rewind to the Cambrian Explosion or to the dawn of life itself, the progression we would see in the fossil record would be radically different to the one we are familiar with.

Additionally Gould views evolutionary change as both irreversible and constraining further changes. Tetrapods randomly evolved to have four limbs because evolutionary pressures acted on fish ancestors with four fins. It is for this reason that there will never be any six-limbed tetrapods - evolutionary pasts constrain evolutionary futures. Gould's views of randomness, irreversibility and constraint are controversial, but a recent study has provided molecular evidence to support these.

A research team from the University of Pennsylvania examined the effects of purifying selection on a bacterial protein. Purifying selection favours mutations which have little to no effect in a fixed environment. This is in contrast to adaptation by natural selection, in which mutations are selected if they increase an organism's fitness in a new environment. Purifying selection is by far the more common type of selection.

'It's the simplest, most boring type of evolution you can imagine,' said Professor Joshua Plotkin from the University of Pennsylvania. 'Purifying selection is just asking an organism to do what it's doing and keep doing it well.'

The bacterial protein used was argT. It has a known three dimensional structure and is small enough to allow the effects of mutations to be accurately modelled. Computer simulations were made of the effects of introducing small mutations into the protein's structure over a 10 million year period.

'The very same mutations that were accepted by evolution when they were proposed, had they been proposed at a much earlier in time, they would have been deleterious and would have been rejected,' said Plotkin. What this shows is that the effects of certain mutations are contingent on what other mutations are present.

The structures of proteins are remarkably complex and their
functions are dependant on their structures remaining sound
As mutations gather, the degree of contingency in a protein increases and the mutations become entrenched. As time progressed, it became increasingly difficult to reverse mutations without de-stabilising the protein's structure due to the complex web of contingency involving those mutations. Entrenchment and contingency are known to exist in adaptation, but this is the first time they have been seen in purifying selection.

The entrenchment also serves to constrain what mutations could be selected for in the future, serving to narrow the possible evolutionary future of the simulated protein. While Gould's comment about replaying the tape of life was based on the large amount of randomness inherent in evolution's path, this study suggests a more nuanced reason that the playback would appear different.

It highlights the effects of entrenchment and contingency on a single protein. Yet imagine their effects on a complex multicellular organism with tens of thousands of proteins all contingent not only on their individual mutational histories, but one another. Proteins not only play roles in cells such as signalling or catalysing reactions, but also in guiding the development of multicellular creatures from embryo to organism - perhaps the most contingent of all biological processes. By scaling the results of the 10 million year protein study, it becomes easy to see how the large scale changes seen in the fossil record over 3.8 billion years could have occurred and how they represent just one possible constrained history of life.


March 20, 2016

The master algorithm by Pedro Domingos

The master algorithm by Pedro Domingos
How the quest for the ultimate learning machine will remake our world
[ I love this book by its overwhelming insights into the future than can be]
The central hypothesis of this book: All knowledge -past, present, and future- can be derived from data by a single, universal learning algorithm.
Symbolists view learning as the inverse of deduction and take ideas from philosophy, psychology and logic. Connectionists reverse engineer the brain and are inspired by neuroscience and physics. Evolutionaries simulate evolution on the computer and draw on genetics and evolutionary biology. Bayesians believe learning is a form of probabilistic inference and have their roots in statistics. Analyzers learn by extrapolating from similarity judgments and are influenced by psychology and mathematical optimization.
Each of the above five tribes of machine learning has its own master algorithms, a general purpose learner that you can in principle use to discover knowledge from data in any domain. The symbolists’ master algorithm is inverse deduction, the connectionists’ is backpropagation, the evolutionaries’ is generic programming, the Bayesians’ is Bayesian inference, and analyzers’ is the support vector machine. If exists, the Master algorithm can derive all knowledge in the world - past, present and future - from data.
The Machine-learning Revolution.
Claude Shannon better known as the father of information theory, was the first to realize that what transistors are doing, as they switch on and off in response to other transistors, is reasoning Symbol algorithms can be represented by diagrams:AND, OR, NOT operations.
Algorithms are an exacting standard. It’s often said that you don’t really understand something until you can express it as an algorithm. For example, Newton’s second law, arguably the most important equation of all time, tells you to compute the net force on an object by multiplying its mass by its acceleration. It also tells you implicitly that the acceleration is the force divided by the mass, but making that explicit is itself an algorithmic step.
There is a serpent in this Eden. It’s called the complexity monster. Like the Hydra, the complexity monster has many heads. One of them is space complexity: the number of bits of information an algorithm needs to store in the computer’s memory. If the algorithm needs more memory than the computer can provide, it is useless and must be discarded. Then there is the evil sister, time complexity: how long the algorithm takes to run, that is, how many steps of using and reusing the transistors it has to go through before it produces the desired results. If it is longer than we can wait, the algorithm is again useless. But the scariest face of the complexity monster is human complexity. When algorithms become too intricate for our poor human brains to understand, when the interactions between different parts of the algorithm are too many and too involved, errors creep in, we can't find them and fix them, and the algorithm doesn’t do want we want.
We can think of machine learning as the inverse of programming,, in the same way that the square root is the inverse of the square or integration is the inverse of differentiation.
In the information-processing ecosystem, learners are the superpredators. Database, crawlers, indexers and so on are the herbivores, patiently mugging on endless fields of data. Statistical algorithms, online analytics processing and so are the predators.
Machine-learning experts are an elite priesthood even among computer scientists. This is because computer scientists particularly those of an older generation, don’t understand machine learning. This is because computer science has traditionally been all about thinking deterministically, but machine learning requires thinking statistically.
The industrial revolution automated manual work and the information revolution did the same for mental work, but machine learning automated automation itself. Without it, programmers become the bottleneck holding up the progress. With it, the pace of progress picks up.
Both Google and Yahoo use auctions to sell ads and machine learning to predict how likely a user is to click on an ad. Google’s learning algorithms are much better than Yahoo’s. This is not the only reason for the difference in their market caps, but it is a big one. Every predicted click that doesn't happen is a wasted opportunity for the advertiser and lost revenue for the website.
Once the inevitable happens and learning algorithms become the middlemen, power becomes concentrated in them. Google algorithms largely determine what information you find. Amazon’s what products you buy etc. The last mile is still yours - choosing from among the options the algorithms present you with - but 99.(% percent of the selection was done by them.
Data is the new ‘oil’ is a popular refrain and as with oil, refining it is big business.
Machine learning automates discovery. It is no surprise, then, that it is revolutionizing science as much as it’s revolutionizing business. To make a progress, every field of science needs to have data commensurate with the complexity of the phenomena it studies. This is why physics was the first science to take off: Tycho Brahe's recordings of the positions of the planets and Galileo’s observations of pendulums and inclined planes were enough to infer Newton’s laws. It is also why molecular biology despite being younger than neuroscience has outpaced it: DNA microarrays and high-throughput sequencing provide a volume of data that neuroscientists can only hope for. And it is the reason why social science research is such an uphill battle.
With big data and machine learning, you can understand much more complex phenomena than before. In most fields, scientists have traditionally used only very limited kind of models, like linear regression. Unfortunately most phenomena in the world are nonlinear.
Bill Gates remark that a breakthrough in machine learning would be worth ten Microsoft will seem conservative. Machine learning will bring about not just a new era of civilization, but a new stage in the evolution of life on Earth.
The Master Algorithm
Just a few algorithms are responsible for the great majority of machine-learning applications. Naive Bayes, a learning algorithm that can be expressed as a single short equation. Given a database of patient records, Naive Bayes can learn to diagnose the condition in a fraction of a second, often better than doctors who spent many years in medical school.
Nearest-neighbor algorithm has been used for everything from handwriting recognition to controlling robot hands to recommending books and movies you might like.
Decision tree learners are equally apt at deciding whether your credit card application should be accepted, finding splice junctions in DNA, and choosing the next move in a game of chess.
In physics, the same equation applied to different quantities often describe phenomena in completely different fields: The wave equation the diffusion equation, the Poisson's’ equation. Quite conceivably, they are all instances of a master equation and all the Master Algorithm needs to do is figure out how to instantiate it for different data sets.
Physics is unique in its simplicity. Outside physics and engineering, the track record of mathematics is more mixed. Biology and sociology will never be as simple as physics, but the method by which we discover their truths can be.
Bayes theorem is a machine that turns data into knowledge. According to Bayesian statisticians, it is the only correct way to turn data into knowledge.
P and NP are the two most important classes of problems in computer science.
Stories of falling apples notwithstanding, deep scientific truths are not low-hanging fruit. Science goes through three phases, which we can call the Brahe, Kepler, and Newton phases. Brahe phase, we gather lots of data, In Kepler phase, we fit empirical laws to the data. In Newton’s phase, we discover the deeper truths. Most science consists of Brahe and Kepler like work; Newton moments are rare. Today, big data does the work of billions of Brahs and machine learning the work of millions of Kepler's. If there are more Newton moments to be had, they are a likely to come from tomorrow's learning algorithms as from tomorrow’s even more overwhelmed scientist or at least from a combination of the two.
The power of theory lies in how much it simplifies our description of the world. Armed with Newton’s laws, we only need to know the masses, positions and velocities of all objects at one point in the time,; their positions and velocities at all times follow. So Newton’s laws reduce our description of the world by a factor of the number of distinguishable instants in the history of universe, past and future.
Newton’s laws are only an approximation of the true laws of physics, so let's replace them with a string theory, ignoring all its problem and the question of whether it can never be empirically validated.
First problem is In reality we never have enough data to completely determine the world. Second problem is that even if we had complete knowledge of the world at some point in time, the laws of physics would still not allow us to determine its past and future. The theories we have in biology, psychology, sociology or economics are not corollaries of the laws of physics; they had to be created from scratch.
Hume’s problem of induction
Rationalists believe that the senses deceive and that logical reasoning is the only sure path to knowledge. Empiricists believe that all reasoning is fallible and that knowledge must come from observation and experimentation. The French are rationalists; the Anglo-Saxon are empiricists.
The rationalists like to plan everything in advance before making the first move. The empiricist prefers to try things and see how they turn out. Plato was an early rationalist and Aristotle an early empiricist.
Newton’s third rule: Whatever is true of everything we have seen is true of everything in the universe.
Harvard’s Leslie Valiant received the Turing Award, the Nobel price of computer science, for inventing the type analysis which he describes in his book entitled, approximately enough, “Probably Approximately Correct’
How does your brain learn
Donald Hebb, a Canadian psychologist, stated that “Neurons that fire together wire together”. A neural network is more like a social network, where a few close friends count for more than thousands of Facebook ones. And it’s the friends you trust most that influence you the most.
The curve which looks like an elongated S is variously known as the logistic, sigmoid or S curve. Peruse it closely, because it is the most important curve in the world. At first the output increases slowly with the input, so slowly it seems constant. The it starts to change faster, they very fast, then slower and slower until it becomes almost constant again. Joseph Schumpeter said that the economy evolves by cracks and leaps.: S curve are the shape of creative destruction. Every motion of your muscles follow an S curve; slow, then fast , then slow again. The S curve is not just important as a model in its own right; it is also the hack of all trades of mathematics. Many phenomena we think of as linear are in fact S curve, because nothing can grow without limit. When someone talks about exponential growth, ask yourself: How soon will it turn into an S curve? In fact, every function can be closely approximated by a sum of S curves.
The path to optimal learning begins with a formula that many people have heard of: Bayes’ theorem: simple rule for updating your degree of belief in a hypothesis when you receive new evidence.
Christianity as we know it was invented by Saint Paul, while Jesus saw himself as the pinnacle of the Jewish faith. Similarly, Bayesianism as we know it was invented by Pierre-Simon de Laplace, a Frenchman who was born five decades after Bayes. Bayes was the preacher who first described a new way to think about chance, but it was Laplace who codified those insights into the theorem that bears Bayes’ name. This is ironic, since LaPlace was also the father of probability theory. Which he believed was just common sense reduced to calculation
As the statistician George Box famously put it: “All models are wrong, but some are useful”. An oversimplified model that you have enough data to estimate is better than a perfect one that you don’t. The economist Milton Friedman even argued in a highly influential essay that the best theories are the most simplified, provided their predictions are accurate, because they explain the most with the least. .
Analogical reasoning has a distinguished intellectual pedigree. Aristotle expressed it in his law of similarity.: if two things are similar, the thought of one will tend to trigger the thought of the other. William James believed that “ this sense of sameness is the very  keel and backbone of our thinking”. Some contemporary psychologists even argue that human cognition in its entirely is a fabric of analogies.
Nearest-neighbor is the simplest and fastest learning algorithms ever invented. In fact, you could even say it is the fastest algorithm of any kind that could ever be invented. It consists of doing exactly nothing, and therefore takes zero time to run.
Help-desk are currently the most popular applications of case-based reasoning. Most still employ a human intermediary, but IPSoft Eliza talks directly to the customer. Eliza , who comes complete with a 3D interactive video persona, has solved over 20 million customer problems to date, mostly for blue-chip US companies. “Greetings from Robotistan, outsourcing’s cheapest new destination”. And just as outsourcing keeps climbing the skills ladder, so does analogical learning. The first robo-lawyers that argue for a particular verdict based on precedents have already been built. One such system correctly predicted the outcomes of over 90 % of the trade secret cases it examined.
Arguably even higher up in the skills ladder in music composition. David Cope, an emeritus professor of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz, designed an algorithm that creates new music in the style of famous composers by selecting and recombining short passages from their work. At a conference I attended some years ago, he played three Mozart pieces: one by the real Mozart, one by a human composer imitating Mozart and one by his system. He then asked the audience to vote for the authentic Amadeus. Wolfgang won, but the computer beat the human imitator. If Cope is right, creativity - the ultimate unfathomable - boils down to analogy and recombination.
Analyzers neatest trick, however, is learning across problem domains. Humans do it all the time. Wall Street hires lots of physicists because physical and financial problems, although superficially very different, often have a similar mathematical structure. Yet all the learners we have seen so far would fall flat, if we say trained them to predict Brownian motion and then asked them to predict the stock market.
Principal component analysis (PCA) as this process is known is one of the key tools in the scientist's toolkit. Psychologists have found that personality boils down to five dimensions - extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience- which they can infer from your tweets and blog posts. Applying PCA to congressional votes and poll data shows that, contrary to popular belief, politics is not mainly about liberals versus conservatives. rather , people differ along two main dimensions: one for economic issues and one for social ones.
Research on reinforcement learning started in earnest in the early 1980s. Reinforcement learning with neural networks has had some notable successes. An early one was a human-level backgammon player. More recently, a reinforcement learner from DeepMind, a London based startup, beat an expert human player at Pong and other simple arcade games. It used a deep network to predict actions values from the console screen’s raw pixels. With its end-to-end vision, learning, and control, the system bore at least a passing resemblance to an artificial brain. This may help explain why Google paid half a billion dollars for deepMind, a company with ni products, no revenues and few employees.
In 1979, Allen Newell and Paul Rosenbloom started wondering what could be the reason for this so-called power law of practice. We perceive and remember things in chunks and we can only hold so many chunks in short-term memory at any given time (seven plus or minus two, according to the classic paper by George Miller). Crucially, grouping things into chunks allows us to process much more information that we otherwise could. That is why telephone numbers have hyphens:1-723-458-3897 is much easier to remember than 172344563897. Herbert Simon, AI cofounder, had earlier found that the main difference between novice and expert chess players is that novices perceive chess positions one piece at a time, while experts see larger patterns involving multiple pieces. Getting better at chess mainly involves acquiring more and larger such chunks.
Chunking and reinforcement learning are not as widely used in business as supervised learning, clustering or dimensionality reduction , but a simple type of learning by interacting with the environment is: learning the effects of your actions.
Many people worry that human-directed evolution will permanently split the human race into a class of genetic haves and one of have-nots. This strikes me as a single failure of imagination. Natural evolution did not result in just two species, one subservient to the other, but in an infinite variety of creatures and intricate ecosystems. Why would artificial evolution, building on it but less constrained, do so?

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