At CWEB, we are always looking to expand our network of strategic investors and partners. If you're interested in exploring investment opportunities or discussing potential partnerships and serious inquiries. Contact:jacque@cweb.com
An organic diet has never been more in style than it is right now, with millions of consumers willing to shell out extra dollars for organic foods. Most of us have a vague idea that organic is better because it’s more natural and free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and pesticides.
But what does “natural” even mean? The line is harder to draw than we may think.
Earth’s population has more than doubled since 1960, and the UN estimates it will reach 9.7 billion by 2050. GMOs already play a role in feeding extra mouths, and if we let it, that role may grow. Yet they are also still a source of controversy, and there are both valid concerns and misconceptions.
How different is food from GM crops as compared to food from non-GM crops?
Humans have been “genetically modifying” plants and animals for thousands of years. Five hundred years ago, say a farmer noticed some corn was a little sweeter. To replicate that flavor, the farmer might select those seeds for the next crop. That new trait came about by random genetic mutation, and establishing a noticeably sweeter flavor using selective breeding would take years, if not decades.
Genetic engineering does much the same thing–discovering and introducing genes that yield desired traits–but in a faster and more accurate way than selective breeding.
Some GM foods, like BT crops, are engineered to contain a form of pesticide, which means they don’t need to be sprayed with chemical pesticides. Eating food that produces a pesticide sounds scary, but as the video notes, pesticide doesn’t always mean it is inedible or harmful to humans. Many substances harm insects or animals, but not humans–coffee is one example.
And there are examples of pesticide-resistant GMOs having a tangible positive impact on people. When eggplant farmers in Bangladesh began to get sick from using too much chemical pesticide, for example, they implemented BT and were able to reduce pesticide use by 80 percent.
Much of the backlash against GMOs is less about genetic engineering and more about the business practices of the corporations that control our food supply. GMO crops have been a money-maker for herbicide companies–and as crops have been modified to be herbicide-resistant, herbicide use increases. For companies making GMO seeds and associated herbicides, that’s a lot of power over something as critical as how we feed ourselves.
And perhaps we need to be particularly careful when it comes to genetically modified anything, to thoroughly vet it for harm to humans and ecosystems. Once the genie’s out of the bottle, many worry we might not be able to get it back in again.
As we continue to confront and sort out the ethics of it all, however, we can’t neglect the potential good that genetic engineering may bring. We might even look beyond pests and weeds in the future. Plants could be engineered to produce more nutrients to improve our diet or to be more resilient to climate change, or even to protect the environment instead of just reducing agriculture’s impact on it.
GMOs are part of the larger genetic engineering debate, which is only going to intensify. New techniques are getting easier, cheaper, and more precise by the year. Tech can do damage or be a force for good; the real trick is weighing risk and benefit impartially and making choices that steer us in the right direction.
The sale and promotion of derivatives of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to amateur investors is being banned in the UK by the financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It is a further blow to the burgeoning cryptocurrency market, coming days after the US authorities indicted the owners of leading crypto derivatives exchange BitMex for operating without being US-registered and allegedly failing to follow anti-money-laundering rules.
In view of recent findings from the University of Cambridge that most firms involved in crypto investments are still operating without a licence, other operators are potentially vulnerable to indictments too.
It all sounds like bad news for anyone hoping that more investors will put money into cryptocurrencies. But on a closer inspection, I’m not so sure.
Drops and oceans?
The FCA is preventing retail investors from buying and selling the likes of cryptocurrency futures and options, which people often use as a way of hedging their bets on an underlying asset. For example, you might buy an option to sell a certain number of bitcoin at today’s price if the price falls by 10%, giving you an insurance policy in case the market moves against you.
The FCA said it was introducing the ban from January 6 because amateur investors were at risk of “sudden and unexpected losses”. The reasoning is that these people often don’t understand the market, there is lots of “market abuse and financial crime” in the sector, cryptocurrencies are very volatile and they are hard to value.
The UK regulator is trying to protect investors. Mehaniq
To stress, the ban is not being extended to professional traders or institutional firms like hedge funds, which have typically been allowed access to riskier financial products than the general population. It is about protecting people who might have been drawn to bitcoin thinking “it may be the currency of the future”, having “heard sensational news coverage about the rise and fall”. There are any number of splashy trading sites offering them quick and easy entry into this world, and YouTube influencers who enthusiastically encourage them to try complex trading.
Some 1.9 million people — around 4% of the adult population — own cryptocurrencies in the UK. Three-quarters have holdings worth less than £1,000 and would certainly qualify as retail investors. We don’t know what proportion of UK investors use crypto derivatives, but we do know that the worldwide trade in these financial products was nearly a fifth of the total crypto market in 2019 (and has been growing rapidly in 2020).
Yet retail investors are probably not the main users of derivatives. Trading site eToro said earlier this year that maybe only a tenth of their retail investor spend was on this segment. And with most of the UK contingent using non-UK based exchanges, it’s easy enough to avoid FCA jurisdiction. The FCA says the ban could reduce annual losses and fees to investors by between £19 million and £101 million.
The ban also doesn’t make much difference at a worldwide level. The UK crypto market is small beer compared to global cryptocurrency holdings, which are worth US$335 billion ( £258 billion). You would not therefore have expected the FCA ban to have a material detrimental impact on the price of bitcoin or leading alternative coins like ethereum, and sure enough, it didn’t. In fact, it was widely expected by industry observers and had arguably already been priced in.
Volatility and excessive risk
The fact that the price of bitcoin is very volatile has historically been the scourge of this sector, with many specialists repeatedly saying that this prevents it from serving as a store of value and becoming a functional currency. You could argue that banning some derivatives trading has the potential to reduce this volatility.
When people buy derivatives, they can be highly levered, meaning that they are borrowing to increase the size of their trade to make greater potential gains (or losses). Many exchanges, typically in Asia, allow investors to borrow 15 times the size of the trade, while some offer over 100 times leverage.
When trades are leveraged, investors enter and exit the market more quickly, since their loss or gain is multiplied by the proportion they have borrowed. It’s this effect on the market that increases price volatility. Yet bitcoin has lately been trading at an all-time low for volatility, so the ban may not achieve much in this respect.
None of this is to say that the ban is meaningless. Derivatives make markets more efficient by allowing investors to hedge their bets, so even a partial ban in one major country has to be seen as a step backwards for cryptocurrencies. There is also a bigger danger for the industry that other leading global financial regulators such as the SEC in the US and BaFin in Germany may follow suit.
This damage could be greatly aggravated if the US or other authorities were to indict other unregistered exchanges like BitMex. That could cause a liquidity crisis as investors withdrew their money en masse. Again, we will have to wait and see what happens. BitMex has said that around 30% of customer funds have been withdrawn since the US issued charges, but insists it is open for “business as usual”.
But as far as the UK ban is concerned, I would argue on balance that curtailing excessive risk-taking by amateur traders in a sector where trading vanilla cryptocurrencies is risky enough seems logical. I have met many “retail investors” in crypto whose depth of knowledge is refreshing, far exceeding that of financial institutions, but there will certainly be others who don’t understand their risks.
To end on a positive note, part of the FCA’s reasoning for the ban was that there was “no reliable basis” for valuing cryptocurrencies. It did not say there was no value in cryptocurrencies. That is a noticeable shift from what regulators might have said in the past, and is a sign that bitcoin is becoming more widely accepted.
Warner Bros. (NYSE:T) delayed Dune until October 1, 2021 and changed The Batman starring Robert Pattinson until March 8, 2022.
The studio pulled Black Adam (starring Dwayne Johnson) and Minecraft from the release calendar. The newest sequel to The Matrix film series should air from April 1, 2022 to Dec. 22, 2021. The Flash will move from June to November in 2022, and Shazam 2 leaves November 2022 for June 2, 2023.
As artificial intelligence systems take on more tasks and solve more problems, it’s hard to say which is rising faster: our interest in them or our fear of them. Futurist Ray Kurzweil famously predicted that “By 2029, computers will have emotional intelligence and be convincing as people.”
We don’t know how accurate this prediction will turn out to be. Even if it takes more than 10 years, though, is it really possible for machines to become conscious? If the machines Kurzweil describes say they’re conscious, does that mean they actually are?
Perhaps a more relevant question at this juncture is: what is consciousness, and how do we replicate it if we don’t understand it?
In a panel discussion at South By Southwest titled “How AI Will Design the Human Future,” experts from academia and industry discussed these questions and more.
Wait, What Is AI?
Most of AI’s recent feats–diagnosing illnesses, participating in debate, writing realistic text–involve machine learning, which uses statistics to find patterns in large datasets then uses those patterns to make predictions. However, “AI” has been used to refer to everything from basic software automation and algorithms to advanced machine learning and deep learning.
“The term ‘artificial intelligence’ is thrown around constantly and often incorrectly,” said Jennifer Strong, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal and host of the podcast “The Future of Everything.” Indeed, one study found that 40 percent of European companies that claim to be working on or using AI don’t actually use it at all.
Dr. Peter Stone, associate chair of computer science at UT Austin, was the study panel chair on the 2016 One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (or AI100) report. Based out of Stanford University, AI100 is studying and anticipating how AI will impact our work, our cities, and our lives.
“One of the first things we had to do was define AI,” Stone said. They defined it as a collection of different technologies inspired by the human brain to be able to perceive their surrounding environment and figure out what actions to take given these inputs.
Modeling on the Unknown
Here’s the crazy thing about that definition (and about AI itself): we’re essentially trying to re-create the abilities of the human brain without having anything close to a thorough understanding of how the human brain works.
“We’re starting to pair our brains with computers, but brains don’t understand computers and computers don’t understand brains,” Stone said. Dr. Heather Berlin, cognitive neuroscientist and professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, agreed. “It’s still one of the greatest mysteries how this three-pound piece of matter can give us all our subjective experiences, thoughts, and emotions,” she said.
This isn’t to say we’re not making progress; there have been significant neuroscience breakthroughs in recent years. “This has been the stuff of science fiction for a long time, but now there’s active work being done in this area,” said Amir Husain, CEO and founder of Austin-based AI company Spark Cognition.
Advances in brain-machine interfaces show just how much more we understand the brain now than we did even a few years ago. Neural implants are being used to restore communication or movement capabilities in people who’ve been impaired by injury or illness. Scientists have been able to transfer signals from the brain to prosthetic limbs and stimulate specific circuits in the brain to treat conditions like Parkinson’s, PTSD, and depression.
But much of the brain’s inner workings remain a deep, dark mystery–one that will have to be further solved if we’re ever to get from narrow AI, which refers to systems that can perform specific tasks and is where the technology stands today, to artificial general intelligence, or systems that possess the same intelligence level and learning capabilities as humans.
The biggest question that arises here, and one that’s become a popular theme across stories and films, is if machines achieve human-level general intelligence, does that also mean they’d be conscious?
Wait, What Is Consciousness?
As valuable as the knowledge we’ve accumulated about the brain is, it seems like nothing more than a collection of disparate facts when we try to put it all together to understand consciousness.
“If you can replace one neuron with a silicon chip that can do the same function, then replace another neuron, and another–at what point are you still you?” Berlin asked. “These systems will be able to pass the Turing test, so we’re going to need another concept of how to measure consciousness.”
Is consciousness a measurable phenomenon, though? Rather than progressing by degrees or moving through some gray area, isn’t it pretty black and white–a being is either conscious or it isn’t?
This may be an outmoded way of thinking, according to Berlin. “It used to be that only philosophers could study consciousness, but now we can study it from a scientific perspective,” she said. “We can measure changes in neural pathways. It’s subjective, but depends on reportability.”
She described three levels of consciousness: pure subjective experience (“Look, the sky is blue”), awareness of one’s own subjective experience (“Oh, it’s me that’s seeing the blue sky”), and relating one subjective experience to another (“The blue sky reminds me of a blue ocean”).
“These subjective states exist all the way down the animal kingdom. As humans we have a sense of self that gives us another depth to that experience, but it’s not necessary for pure sensation,” Berlin said.
Husain took this definition a few steps farther. “It’s this self-awareness, this idea that I exist separate from everything else and that I can model myself,” he said. “Human brains have a wonderful simulator. They can propose a course of action virtually, in their minds, and see how things play out. The ability to include yourself as an actor means you’re running a computation on the idea of yourself.”
Most of the decisions we make involve envisioning different outcomes, thinking about how each outcome would affect us, and choosing which outcome we’d most prefer.
What Would It Mean for AI to Become Conscious?
As artificial intelligence systems take on more tasks and solve more problems, it’s hard to say which is rising faster: our interest in them or our fear of them. Futurist Ray Kurzweil famously predicted that “By 2029, computers will have emotional intelligence and be convincing as people.”
We don’t know how accurate this prediction will turn out to be. Even if it takes more than 10 years, though, is it really possible for machines to become conscious? If the machines Kurzweil describes say they’re conscious, does that mean they actually are?
Perhaps a more relevant question at this juncture is: what is consciousness, and how do we replicate it if we don’t understand it?
In a panel discussion at South By Southwest titled “How AI Will Design the Human Future,” experts from academia and industry discussed these questions and more.
Moving Forward Cautiously (But Not too Cautiously)
To be clear, we’re nowhere near machines achieving artificial general intelligence or consciousness, and whether a “conscious machine” is possible–not to mention necessary or desirable–is still very much up for debate.
As machine intelligence continues to advance, though, we’ll need to walk the line between progress and risk management carefully.
Improving the transparency and explainability of AI systems is one crucial goal AI developers and researchers are zeroing in on. Especially in applications that could mean the difference between life and death, AI shouldn’t advance without people being able to trace how it’s making decisions and reaching conclusions.
Medicine is a prime example. “There are already advances that could save lives, but they’re not being used because they’re not trusted by doctors and nurses,” said Stone. “We need to make sure there’s transparency.” Demanding too much transparency would also be a mistake, though, because it will hinder the development of systems that could at best save lives and at worst improve efficiency and free up doctors to have more face time with patients.
Similarly, self-driving cars have great potential to reduce deaths from traffic fatalities. But even though humans cause thousands of deadly crashes every day, we’re terrified by the idea of self-driving cars that are anything less than perfect. “If we only accept autonomous cars when there’s zero probability of an accident, then we will never accept them,” Stone said. “Yet we give 16-year-olds the chance to take a road test with no idea what’s going on in their brains.”
This brings us back to the fact that, in building tech modeled after the human brain–which has evolved over millions of years–we’re working towards an end whose means we don’t fully comprehend, be it something as basic as choosing when to brake or accelerate or something as complex as measuring consciousness.
“We shouldn’t charge ahead and do things just because we can,” Stone said. “The technology can be very powerful, which is exciting, but we have to consider its implications.”
Ford was the second-oldest surviving Hall of Famer behind the former 93-year-old Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda. Whitey Ford was nicknamed “the Chairman of the Board” by teammate Elston Howard for having a calm demeanor in high pressure situations.
Photo Source:Author Delaywaves
Whitey Ford was an American professional baseball pitcher who played his entire 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. He was a ten-time All-Star and six-time World Series champion. In 1961, he won both the Cy Young Award and World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Ford led the American League (AL) in wins three times and in earned run average (ERA) twice. He is the Yankees franchise leader in career wins (236), shutouts (45), innings pitched (​3,170 1â„3), and games started by a pitcher (438; tied). Ford was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Source Wikipedia
Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, St. Louis Cardinals ace died just six days ago from pancreatic cancer. Gibson earned 251 wins, struck out 3,117 and had a 2.91 ERA.
“Covid Relief Negotiations are moving along. Go Big!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning.
President Donald Trump also tweeted-“We will see if Pelosi comes down from her demand “Crazy Nancy Pelosi is looking at the 25th Amendment in order to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris. The Dems want that to happen fast because Sleepy Joe is out of it!!!”
Talks will resume with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this afternoon. The White House raised the amount for emergency aid for cash-strapped cities and states to $300 billion, up from a $250 billion.
In other news, Trump as been set to return to work as approved by his doctor.
FBI uncovers armed militia group plot to abduct Michigan Gov. Whitmer.
Appeals court blocks order allowing and extra week for counting Wisconsin absentee ballots for Presidential Election 2020.
Warner media cuts cost by 20% cutting thousands of jobs. This is the second wave of cuts. Warner Brothers had eliminated 500 jobs back in August.
The nuclear energy producer Exelon rose more than 1% in after-hours today.
An analyst upgraded Zoom video with a price target of $555 per share based on the belief that the company will continue as a market leader and provide revenue growth for its investors.
The FDA granted emergency clearance GenMark Diagnostics. The company makes tests that screen for Covid-19 , the flu another viruses.
Fiverr the website where people can hire freelancers, prices %400 million dollars debt offering.
Game Stop partners in a deal with airsoft that includes Cloud operations.
AMD has a new chip for gamers. It introduced Next Generation Ryzen 5000 Series 4 Desktop Processors as the company looks to close it on competition with Intel.
Housing markets are hot due to real estate stocks advancing due Exceptionally low interest rates. Covid-19 has people move out of the cities and into the suburbs. Hot markets to watch for Rochester New York Bakersfield California Harrisburg Carlisle Pennsylvania Allentown Bethlehem Pennsylvania South Portland Maine Colorado Springs Colorado and Fresno, California.
