Japanthanks.com August 8, Olympics Closing Ceremony - Why Bach Can't lose by announcing suspension of summer olympics until covid slayed

Thursday, December 31, 2020

bye bye 2020

 the covid and trumpian chaos of 2020 reminds us of a recommendation we shared in 2011 during the first year of the journal of new economics edited by adam smith scholars and friends out of glasgow university

questions welcome chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk washington dc - help needed astra.place





Thursday, December 17, 2020

 

update 17 dec - informative bbc review of china's sinovac and sinopharm - and comparison of how vaccines work - in terms of population reach china is likely to be number 1 vaccine producer - see also indonesia early use of sinovac


review of the year when peoples everywhere came to terms with governments total failure to save peoples from exponential risks- arrogant old western governments and media turn out to be hopelessly out of touch with empowering heroic last mile public servants- dare they learn in time for there to be a sustainability generation?

37th year of failing the economist's survey of valuing the future of health ai (tech and human exponential change)

2025report published from 1984- 37th year of wider sustainability failures including education and professional trust (1984 prediction our species will depend on uniting peoples awareness and action of goal 1 end poverty by 2000- this cannot be done without valuing last miles service capabilities of goal2 food and water, 3 health, 4 livelihood education, 5 lives matter of all (no underclasses within or across nation borders), goal 6 connection sanitation infrastructures withother commons infrastructures so that trasparent market access celebrates small and medium enterprses and every community as thriving place for children anf family development
- remap worldwide infrastructre goals 6-12
go green goals 13-16 - review glasgow nov 2021

100 times "moore" tech every 0 to 5g decade (1970s-2020s) :design bottom-up partnerships- as discussed in The Economist's 1976's launch of future entrepreneurs change the 3 main western top down legalislated organisation forms - big corporation, big gov, big charity- missing audit of goodwill ecponential multiplers discussed as unseen wealth year 2000, dismissed by incoming bush admin 2001- dc becomes global epicentre of 2 decades of rampant failure to value lives matter 





2020 review - there is no use bitching over the total failure of western politicians and macroeconomics as disgraceful political chicanery - replace failed economist by humansAI and realise 2020s as the decade celebrating the first sdg generation, or go the way of the dodo- that would be waste of 7.5 billions intel and love but there is no point kidding anyone that we humans will see a 22nd century if we cant learn from all the broken systems that covid exploited
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december 2020 debate with coalition of forst 50 new universities valuing younger half of world's futureoflife

2022 Annual Compendium of AI Assistance for Humans SDGs

contributor

Chris Macrae, Research Associate at ...

MAX 750 WORD PITCH

2022 is the 65th year since the parting of one of the humanly and exponentially most impactful Hungarians to have graced planet earth.

John Von Neumann’s immediate legacy was JFK’s moon race and birth of twin AI (Artificial Intelligence) labs by John McCarthy, facing: Atlantic out of Boston MIT and Pacific out of Stanford U Palo Alto. McCarthy’s defining purpose of AI now APPlies to integrating humanity’s SDGs. “AI is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs” where “intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world.”

Writing in Dec 2020, there cannot be a more urgent time to openly compile a play-book of 500+ mini cases of how tech can assist humans and our next generation. Today’s AI wizards associated at www.futureoflife.org clarify 6 decades of hi-tech exponentials have reached 2020s ultimate tipping points : all life can flourish like never before, or self-destruct.

Also called for is a serious educational transformation not just by the grade but so that everyone in every community is valued as free to be a lifelong learner and mentor. Our species will end unless we can get ahead of hyper-connectivity’s exponential challenges. Examining youth to be perfectly right as constituted by old exponentials is not worth a cent if nature or tech’s connectivity is waving round new exponentials. Helping youth to be curious and collaborative in value mapping the new new world is life critical. Page 4 of the attachment shows these exponential timelines are not new to the universe- they were anticipated in The Economist inspired 2025report.com written in 1984 at a time when it was evident that Moore’s Law’s promise to deliver 100 fold more computational capacity over 6 decades was being fulfilled 1965-2025.

Proposal; TO assemble first annual compendium by surveying links to youth’s greatest cheerleaders of humanizing AI. In my living memory, there has never been a year like 2021 for openly valuing asynchronous societal leaps forward -be the contexts post-covid, all lives matter, united communities of climate to name but three. Every place’s diversity depends on updating what relevant 2020s AI and its own deepest data compose. At #AIforgood the UN is leaping into year 4 of asking tech & societal wizards: which SDG practice branches of UN can you assist?- see first page of attachment where the good news is faculty and AI  learning modules are online and free. Page 2 samples a most radical open society tech university – projects which Arizona’s President Crow invites young world to partner. Page 3 indicates NIST US gov has only just begun debating the 4 principles of Explainable AI

My father (The Economist’s Norman Macrae) spent his last days as a teenager in world war 2 navigating airplanes of allied bomber command over modern-day Myanmar- the great Bay of Bengal to the west, Asean peninsular south and continental China and Japan to north east. Doubly fortunate: he survived, to be among the last people to make notes with both Keynes and Von Neumann. Their system innovations inspired the optimistic rational approach of The Economist’s end poverty subeditors. In retirement, Norman’s first focus was to write the biography of Von Neumann, his last to help new graduates in journalism explore Bangladesh -can the country with the deepest village women capital partner the most relevant AI wizards?

After father died, the Japanese ambassador to Dhaka hosted 2 roundtables with Sir Fazle Abed: what’s next in empowering rural Asian women to scale up sustainability lives matter of Asians as connectors of two thirds of the human race? That’s where I first heard of ambassadors being invited to brainstorm the new university coalition of SDGs.

Can every open society imagineer a tech-for-SDGs project to linkin to the compendium? Nature’s system maths isn’t rocket science but it demands mapping multipliers bottom up and open without borders. NO*SO*TO=EXP. Sustainability mapping depends on deep data so that human behaviors triangularize natural, societal and technological openness.

To kick start the first AIforHUMANS annual with a budget of five thousand dollars, I am excluding publication costs other than digital. I would rather leave local curriculum of cases to branch out of OSUN or Adam Smith and Franciscan scholars outreach, or anyone cheering return of team USA to sustainability and lives matter worldwide performances.

Alternatively, if OSUN wants to takeover this project completely– fine, but I ask that something is ready to celebrate before cop26 Glasgow Nov 2021.

As always, any reporting errors are mine alone


Sunday, November 29, 2020

 worth rewatching a golden oldie


The Two-Hour Special

The Heroes

This special program presents the stories of unsung champions who protect people worldwide from the ravages of threatening disease. Using highlights from the six-hour series, this special focuses on the individual heroes whose tireless perseverance saves millions of lives across the globe. From young polio warriors in India to armies of grandmothers in Nepal, the program takes viewers inside the stirring campaigns that have brought renewed faith to poor communities from Africa to South America.


The Complete Series

Program 1: Disease Warriors

Before there was an understanding of infectious disease, few weapons were available to fight it. Disease Warriors chronicles the groundbreaking work of early researchers, such as the famed scientist Louis Pasteur, who unmasked germs as the source of illness. Pasteur went on to develop a rabies vaccine — a great scientific triumph. Today, vaccines have made huge strides against epidemics, conquering smallpox and bringing the global eradication of polio within reach. But the world still faces major challenges in getting basic vaccines to those who still need them, and in creating new ones to combat modern nemeses, like AIDS.

Program 2: Rise of the Superbugs

It's difficult to imagine a world without medicines — and yet, before the twentieth century there weren't any. The discovery of the very first antibiotic, penicillin, and the subsequent development of more "wonder drugs" transformed the face of modern medicine. Rise of the Superbugs chronicles these historic successes, as well as the growing threat posed by new strains of germs, such as tuberculosis and staph, that are resistant to our best antibiotics. Are our strongest medicines becoming obsolete, and can we develop new drugs in time to replace them?

Program 3: Delivering the Goods

At the dawn of the 21st century, we can prevent, treat or cure most of the deadliest diseases known to humankind — and yet millions die needlessly every year because the benefits of modern medicine and public health fail to reach them. What are the obstacles to providing care to populations in need? From the villages of the Gambia to the cities and towns of Thailand, from the sun-scorched refugee camps of Chad to the teeming streets of Bangladesh — this episode chronicles innovative health programs and charismatic leaders who, against all odds, are Delivering the Goods to millions of individuals — and inspiring a new vision for the future of global health.

Program 4: Deadly Messengers

Since the plague killed millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages, vector-borne diseases — those that rely on insects and animals to spread infectious agents — have posed a serious threat to public health. Today, the most dangerous vector on earth is the mosquito. From malaria to yellow fever to West Nile virus, mosquito-borne diseases continue to threaten the health of millions around the world. Deadly Messengers recounts the stories of heroic scientists and health workers who battled against the mosquito, and examines current efforts to control dangerous and spreading vector-borne diseases.

Program 5: Back to the Basics

Ever since sailors noticed that scurvy could be prevented with citrus fruits, it has been clear that illness could be caused by a lack of certain nutrients. While nutrient-enriched products have reduced diseases caused by vitamin deficiency in the developed countries, the problem continues to plague the developing world. And many in poorer countries suffer from the twin problems of poor nutrition and unsafe water, which create a disease burden that is almost unbearable. Back to the Basics explores the connection between health and the essential requirements that so many people take for granted. It also examines how an overabundance of nutrition — in the form of over-consumption — is causing an epidemic of obesity that is spreading across the globe.

Program 6: How Safe Are We?

During the past 100 years, life expectancy more than doubled in developed countries. In the last few decades, however, thirty new infectious diseases have emerged and one of them — AIDS — is becoming perhaps the most devastating epidemic in history. New diseases travel the globe with unprecedented rapidity, and older killers that once seemed controllable are roaring back with a vengeance. How Safe Are We? examines the most critical threats we face today — including avian flu — and the pressing need to strengthen global public health systems.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

 if you get time go to 48 minute 30 seconds to rewind panel just played out in qatar

far too late for health experts to be cauitious about politically correct -- bbc stephen hard talk

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24xk-Q2C00AqBNUeGwyxsg 

https://2020.wish.org.qa/virtual/forum-reports/

DAY 1 (english) - experts from london singapore sweden georgia explain disasters that covid will cause next unless we all share correct info (there is something odd about this youtube clock - the interesting part of the video is second half panel- if hard to find pls tell me)

this summit over next 5 days is organised by sheikha moza first lady of qatar who also chose sir fazle to launch wise on education alongside wish on health


Thursday, October 15, 2020

 how politicians in usa faked health

Illustration of a hand holding a cracked microscope slide containing the U.S. flag.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Crafting successful public health measures depends on the ability of top scientists to gather data and report their findings unrestricted to policymakers.

State of play: But concern has spiked among health experts and physicians over what they see as an assault on key science protections, particularly during a raging pandemic. And a move last week by President Trump, via an executive order, is triggering even more worries.

What's happening: If implemented, the order creates a "Schedule F" class of federal employees who are policymakers from certain agencies who would no longer have protection against being easily fired — and would likely include some veteran civil service scientists who offer key guidance to Congress and the White House.

  • Those agencies might handle the order differently, and it is unclear how many positions could fall under Schedule F — but some say possibly thousands.
  • "This much-needed reform will increase accountability in essential policymaking positions within the government," OMB director Russ Vought tells Axios in a statement.

What they're saying: Several medical associations, including the Infectious Diseases Society of America, strongly condemned the action, and Democrats on the House oversight panel demanded the administration "immediately cease" implementation.

  • "If you take how it's written at face value, it has the potential to turn every government employee into a political appointee, who can be hired and fired at the whim of a political appointee or even the president," says University of Colorado Boulder's Roger Pielke Jr.
  • Protections for members of civil service allow them to argue for evidence-based decision-making and enable them to provide the best advice, says CRDF Global's Julie Fischer, adding that "federal decision-makers really need access to that expertise — quickly and ideally in house."

Between the lines: Politics plays some role in science, via funding, policymaking and national security issues.

  • The public health system is a mix of agency leaders who are political appointees, like HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and career civil servants not dependent on the president's approval, like NIAID director Anthony Fauci.
  • "Public health is inherently political because it has to do with controlling the way human beings move around," says University of Pennsylvania's Jonathan Moreno.

Yes, but: The norm is to have a robust discussion — and what has been happening under the Trump administration is not the norm, some say.

  • "Schedule F is just remarkable," Pielke says. "It's not like political appointees editing a report, [who are] working within the system to kind of subvert the system. This is an effort to completely redefine the system."
  • The Center for Strategic and International Studies' Stephen Morrison says that the administration has been defying normative practices, including statements denigrating scientists, the CDC and FDA.

The big picture: Public trust in scientists, which tends to be high, is taking a hit, not only due to messaging from the administration but also from public confusion over changes in guidance, which vacillated over masks and other suggestions.

  • Public health institutions "need to have the trust of the American people. In order to have the trust of the American people, they can't have their autonomy and their credibility compromised, and they have to have a voice," Morrison says.
  • "If you deny CDC the ability to have briefings for the public, and you take away control over authoring their guidance, and you attack them and discredit them so public perceptions of them are negative, you are taking them out of the game and leaving the stage completely open for falsehoods," he adds.
  • "All scientists don't agree on all the evidence, every time. But what we do agree on is that there's a process. We look at what we know, we decide what we can clearly recommend based on what we know, sometimes when we learn more, we change our recommendations, and that's the scientific process," Fischer says.

What's next: The scientific community is going to need to be proactive on rebuilding public trust in how the scientific process works and being clear when guidance changes and why it has changed, Fischer says.



 



A Financial System That Extracts Wealth Instead of Creating It

Podcast featuring Dennis Kelleher

Dennis Kelleher, President of the NGO Better Markets, outlines how the financial system is serving the wealthy, how it has been reformed in the past and how it can be reformed again to serve Main Street instead of Wall Street.

Sunday, October 4, 2020

 Opinion

Scared That Covid-19 Immunity Won’t Last? Don’t Be

Dropping antibody counts aren’t a sign that our immune system is failing against the coronavirus, nor an omen that we can’t develop a viable vaccine.

Dr. Iwasaki and Dr. Medzhitov are professors of immunobiology at Yale.

Credit...Christoph Burgstedt/Science Photo Library, via Getty Images

Within the last couple of months, several scientific studies have come out — some peer-reviewedothers not — indicating that the antibody response of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 dropped significantly within two months. The news has sparked fears that the very immunity of patients with Covid-19 may be waning fast — dampening hopes for the development of an effective and durable vaccine.

But these concerns are confused and mistaken.

Both our bodies’ natural immunity and immunity acquired through vaccination serve the same function, which is to inhibit a virus and prevent it from causing a disease. But they don’t always work quite the same way.

And so a finding that naturally occurring antibodies in some Covid-19 patients are fading doesn’t actually mean very much for the likely efficacy of vaccines under development. Science, in this case, can be more effective than nature.

The human immune system has evolved to serve two functions: expediency and precision. Hence, we have two types of immunity: innate immunity, which jumps into action within hours, sometimes just minutes, of an infection; and adaptive immunity, which develops over days and weeks.

Saturday, September 26, 2020

 mit's Prof. Regina Barzilay has been named the inaugural recipient of the Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence to Benefit Humanity for her work developing new AI techniques to help improve health care, reports Rebecca Robbins for STAT. Robbins writes that Barzilay is focused on turning the “abundance of research on AI in health care into tools that can improve care.” the squirrel award is given by the world's largest ai association -— the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) -reports by mit https://news.mit.edu/2020/regina-barzilay-wins-aaai-squirrel-ai-award-artificial-intelligence-0923 and by stat https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/23/regina-barzilay-mit-artificial-intelligence-award/

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Professor Regina Barzilay has received a $1 million Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity for her work developing machine learning models for cancer diagnosis and drug discovery. (420 kB)
STATSTAT
MIT artificial intelligence researcher Regina Barzilay is the inaugural recipient of a new $1 million prize honoring work in AI.