Category Archives: Deep Mind
Consciousness from Descartes to Ayer: two ideas of the mind and two types of mind – The Irish Times
Book Title:Consciousness from Descartes to Ayer
ISBN-13:978-3-030-80920-1
Author:David Berman
Publisher:Palgrave Macmillan
Guideline Price:49.99
In a chapter in The Descent of Man (1871-77) on the question of how mental powers evolved from the simplest animals to humans, Charles Darwin was worried that it was so complex it might never be solved.
Progress is being made but the working of the human brain, especially consciousness, remains one of the two great unsolved problems in biology; the other is the emergence of life about 4 billion years ago. The brain is also one of the great unsolved problems of philosophy (and psychology), where it is usually called the mind.
The big divide in philosophy lies between the materialists for example, Toland, Hume, James and Ayer and the immaterialists for example, Descartes and Berkeley. Materialists believe that the brain is just another part of the body which has various functions such as thought, being, self-consciousness, communication, especially using language etc.
Modern materialists say that the brain is made of cells containing atoms and molecules; the bits follow the laws of nature, that is, of chemistry, physics and genetics. There is only one kind of world, the material world, and all kinds of activity including mental activity depend only on changes in the state of the bits of that world.
Most scientists are materialists, though almost all would say that they have very little idea how the brain works. It is obvious it is an electrochemical machine, but no materialist has yet explained with any precision what thought or consciousness is.
The immaterialists, originally influenced by religious ideas of the supernatural, immortality and the soul, believe that each person is essentially a self-conscious being, the self, who is immaterial and may be immortal. The self resides in our material body. The immaterial mind that is self-conscious, it thinks, and it is the self that defines our being and our relationship with the outside world. Descartes wrote: I think therefore I am.
David Berman, a distinguished philosopher, has been at Trinity College since coming from New York in the mid-1960s to study George Berkeley under AA Luce. Lunchtime conversations with David have been among the most enjoyable of my academic life.
He has been engrossed in the puzzle that is consciousness. In hisbeautifully written, succinct and stimulating book, drawing on his deep appreciation for the history of philosophy, he has set out to settle that big divide in philosophy, and great Irish philosophers have major roles in his story. On the way he makes some challenging proposals to scientists.
He has focussed on two major theories of consciousness: monism and dualism. A monist has only one kind of consciousness, a self-awareness experienced in the process of perceiving things. A dualist has this kind of consciousness and a second kind.
Berman says that a dualist can be aware of themselves as being different from the objects they perceive. According to him the dualist can sometimes feel detached from the objects being perceived, that is, they can be self-conscious at the same time as they are conscious of external phenomena. Berman calls this the core dualistic experience, an ability to experience mental activity distinct from the objects that are being sensed at the same time.
Berman has devised a questionnaire that allows him to assess whether a person is a monist or a dualist and in a small survey he has found that about half of us are one type and half the other. Berman argues that both ideas of the mind are true in that they exist as the real conscious experiences of two different kinds of people. He summarises this in what he calls the Two Consciousness Theory (2CT). Berman believes this resolves the opposition between philosophers of monism and dualism both are true because they are the true experiences of two different kinds of people. Some of us have minds distinct from the objects or phenomena we perceive, some of us do not.We are born as dualist or monist.Most immaterialists identify with dualism, and materialists with monism; philosophers who are monist are often immaterialists, dualists are materialists but the range of ideas is very great.
What do scientists think about consciousness today? Some progress is being made, vindicating Bertrand Russells prediction that science would impinge on philosophy. First they say the obvious: an individual can be in many different states of consciousness, for example from being awake to asleep, from being anaesthetised to being in a persistent vegetative state. They have used methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that different states of consciousness are associated with different levels of neural activity in different parts of the brain.
It is difficult to avoid the inference that consciousness requires and is caused by specific kinds of biochemical and biophysical neural activity which can detected and measured.
Second, sadly, many people suffer from genetic disorders that affect their mental capacity to various degrees and their brains show different kinds of neural activity. It is likely that many of them experience consciousness in ways that differ from the norm.
Thirdly, we may wonder about the kind of consciousness experienced by unusually talented people, for example while concert pianists are playing complex sonatas and concertos faultlessly often at great speed without the music are they conscious of what they are doing moment by moment? Great tennis players make shots which they cannot have time to think about.
Fourthly, we can surmise that a newborn child is not conscious in the same way as an adult: consciousness is an activity of the brain that changes with the development of the individual while maturing and, of course, while ageing, for example with dementia.
Finally, it is certain that human and animal consciousness evolved, probably slowly.Consciousness is certainly a complex trait and so it is likely to be have been affected by changes in many genes over evolutionary time.
In summary, there is a consensus among scientists that consciousness depends on scientifically measurable activities in the human brain and varies with the activity of the brain. Berman may well say that these are all minor variations on the underlying dichotomy between monist and dualist, but this remains to be investigated, by scientists.
He ends his book with an astonishing hypothesis about the consequences of the hybridisation that took place between two sub-species of humans, Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, 70,000 to 25,000 years ago in Europe and/or Asia. He is correct there is excellent genetic evidence for the hybridisation modern Eurasians have about 2-3 per cent Neanderthal DNA. The pure Neanderthals went extinct but the hybrids [modern Eurasians], who ended up with predominantly H. sapiens genes, survived and prospered. Berman says the initial and continued success of our hybrid ancestors was due to the emergence of language during this early period, and that this was a result of hybridisation of H. sapiens [who may have brought an ability to vocalise] with the Neanderthals [who may have contributed a capacity for the core dualistic experience dualism].
This is fantastic speculation about language. In spite of what Berman says there is no consensus among scientists that humans acquired language in this time frame of 70,000 to 25,000 years ago. We have little or no idea when recognisably modern linguistic ability appeared fully formed in the human lineage; but following Darwin and modern genetic theory about complex traits, it is likely that the process took hundreds of thousands if not millions of years and probably predated the separation between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
I am worried that Berman has relied far too heavily on Sapiens by Yuval Harari (2004), a highly successful example of what is called infotainment, full of titillating ideas for which there is little or no evidence. Harari was educated as an historian and has no expertise in any relevant science one reviewer described Sapiens as having made no serious contribution to knowledge. However, if Berman is right that language developed in a few tens of thousands of years at the time our ancestors mated with Neanderthals, he will take his place alongside Democritus who put forward the atomic theory more than 2,000 years before there was any evidence for it.
One last comment. Neuroscientists might decide to repeat Bermans questionnaire on a large scale, perhaps modifying it. If they find they can make a reliable distinction between monists and dualists, they will surely want to study them in much more detail, including studying them for differences in brain activity and genes. They would be testing Bermans daring hypothesis that there are two fundamentally different kinds of human minds; they might find the differences are ultimately explicable in material terms and go some way to explaining consciousness. That would be something.David McConnell is Fellow Emeritus at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College
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Consciousness from Descartes to Ayer: two ideas of the mind and two types of mind - The Irish Times
Open mind, large heart – Times of India
In a sparkling comedic career spanning more than half a century, stand-up superstar and social commentator George Carlin eviscerated America and Americans like no one before or after. From calling the United States a war-mongering nation full of bullshit and a country that was stolen, to torching the American obsession with marketing and advertising, mindless consumption, and over-the-top religion, Carlin was relentless in his critiques of the people and the country he was born into, constantly questioning its self-professed greatness, and its commitment to economic, social and racial justice. For his scalding commentaries and epic rants, some of it coarse, vulgar, and scatological, America honoured him with a place in the stand-up comics Hall of Fame, a Mark Twain Prize for American Humour, more than a dozen HBO comedy specials, and a score of Emmy and Grammy nominations and awards. By most accounts, he is regarded as a comedic national treasure whose wit and wisdom will be weighed and worshipped by generations. No such honours will await Vir Das, 42, when he returns home from a US tour, after a mild takedown of India during one of his shows in Washington DC triggered atavistic passions among hypernationalists back home. Instead, he will likely be subjected to lawsuits and boycotts, and run out of work with specious complaints that he somehow lowered Indias image and prestige abroad. A fledgling field of stand-up comics and entertainers, already walking on eggshells in the face of increasing intolerance at home, will fold without a fight given the might of a troll patrol backed by the establishment.
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Open mind, large heart - Times of India
The Dirt: Digging deep with professor of epidemiology Rod Jackson – Stuff.co.nz
Rod Jackson is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Auckland, a father of two and grandfather of two. He lives and gardens with his wife Barbara, a retired librarian, in Ponsonby.
Gardening is my therapy. I grew up on a beef and sheep farm just out of Dargaville. I felt an affinity with the land, theres a closeness. Now Ive got a garden on a small section. Any time I can, I get out there.
Im an identical twin. My brother is a semi-retired lawyer. It was reasonably competitive between us. That was something my father instilled in us. There were five boys, including two sets of twins. He liked everyone to compete against each other. He was a bit of a slave driver. I learnt from a really early age that you worked really hard seven days a week.
Jason Dorday/Stuff
Rod Jackson is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Auckland but loves to get out in his garden.
At the age of 15 I dont know the reason why, but I read this book called The Population Bomb. The basic premise was that unless we managed the worlds population there would be starvation and disease and wed be well and truly uhhh Thered be catastrophe. That was in the late 60s. It got me thinking about health for the first time, and about populations.
Barbara was my girlfriends best friend. That was around the beginning of university. A few years later we reconnected and ended up rapidly getting together. I think wed always had feelings for each other that had never been expressed.
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I was just going to be a normal doctor and I enjoyed clinical medicine, but I had a real interest in prevention. I remember I was working in a respiratory ward at Auckland Hospital. This lovely volunteer - Blue Cross ladies, we used to call them - went down to the hospital shop to buy cigarettes for a patient because he was too sick to get them himself. And I just thought this is bizarre, so I met with the hospital organisation committee and I said you should ban selling cigarettes at the hospital and they thought I was crazy. This is like 1976, 1977.
People knew I was a bit like that. So when there was a job for a junior doctor to go and work in public health someone said to me Hey Rod would you like to try this? This was now about 1980. So I ended up with this one-year job, working with an epidemiologist called Robert Beaglehole - this amazing guy, the key person behind New Zealands Smokefree Environments [Act]. And I just got sucked in and I never went back. I just loved it.
Jason Dorday/Stuff
I was just going to be a normal doctor and I enjoyed clinical medicine, but I had a real interest in prevention.
In March 2020, a colleague whod moved to Australia sent me a very simple model hed developed showing what the peak Covid infection rates would be by May, if there were no restrictions. I just remember seeing that chart and thinking oh my god, were dealing with a crisis.
No, I dont find it exciting. I find it terrifying. Im an academic epidemiologist, but Im also a public health doctor Every New Zealander who isnt vaccinated its a failure of me as their doctor.
The official number of deaths from Covid is 5 million but every epidemiologist knows thats a huge underestimate. Its probably 12 million up towards 15 to 20 million. In lower income countries many people who die dont even get a death certificate.
I get multiple emails every day from people who are angry about the things I say. They range from the anti-vaxxers to people who just dont like the fact that Im pushing mandates. Unless theyre death threats from whackos I try to answer them. And I have had people whove come around.
Jason Dorday/Stuff
Rod Jackson says he gets multiple emails every day from people who are angry about the things he says.
Mandates work. Yes they impact on peoples freedom, but this is war. This virus doesnt play by any rules. You talk about road maps? The virus doesnt drive. Its designed to do one thing, survive. It doesnt care if it kills you or not.
Im known as the butter cop. My work has mainly been in predicting the risk of heart disease. Eat less saturated fat, dont smoke, less salt, less sugar, and dont be sedentary. The five Ss.
Jason Dorday/Stuff
Jackson and his wife Barbara look after different parts of their garden.
I love wine. And I love ice cream. Ill have a couple of glasses of wine most nights and I have ice cream on the weekends. Favourite flavour? Probably... chocolate.
We have a bit of a demarcation in the garden. Barbara does all the flowers and I do all the vegetables. She tells me that I only let her have parts of the garden. But I love her garden out the front - this wild garden of shrubs and flowers. I just love watching things grow, building things. Im a bit of a dumpster diver. Around here people throw out amazingly good timber. Weve got a 400 sq metre section in Ponsonby. Weve been here since 1984. Its the only house weve ever had.
Jason Dorday/Stuff
Rod Jackson is a fan of square foot gardening, rather than planting in rows.
I had the most amazing mother. She had five kids under 5. She treated us all differently but she had no favourites. She died in 2019 and it kind of brings tears to my eyes. She left at the right time, she wouldnt have coped well with Covid, she was always out. She was a goer.
If youre not vaccinated youre going to get Delta once it gets loose, which is inevitable. This is my one goal. I have a one track mind. Get vaccinated.
Jason Dorday/Stuff
Rod Jackson has compost and a worm farm, as well as using sheep pellets, lime, blood and bone.
Rods gardening tips
- Use lots of fertiliser - Ive got a compost and a worm farm. I use sheep pellets, lime, blood and bone.
- Theres a book (and a site) called Square Foot Gardening. Rather than planting in rows, you garden in one foot square areas. I dont know why but I found it very liberating. It made it so much easier to experiment and companion plant.
- Make your own seed tape. You know those tiny little seeds like carrot seeds that are an absolute pain to plant? You just get toilet paper, fold it over once, put the seeds down along it, fold it on top of them again, moisten it and lay it out in your garden. Some people make a glue from flour and water but you don't need to, you just need to wet it slightly.
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The Dirt: Digging deep with professor of epidemiology Rod Jackson - Stuff.co.nz
Never mind the title. The Sex Lives of College Girls is a guilt-free pleasure – The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sex Lives of College GirlsBingeNew episodes Thursdays
Its OK. You dont need to skulk off to a darkened room to watch The Sex Lives of College Girls; despite the title, its not that kind of show. Yes, theres sex, but its more talked about than shown, and more often than not its used for comic effect.
Co-created by Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project, Never Have I Ever) and Justin Noble (a veteran of Brooklyn Nine-Nines writers room), College Girls is basically an American campus comedy told from the female perspective.
Renee Rapp as Leighton, the spoiled rich kid with a secret life in The Sex Lives of College Girls.Credit:Binge
Its as if wed picked up the story of the girls from Booksmart or Blockers in their first year at university. Or its as if wed travelled back in time to find the women from Sex and the City forging their friendship in the crucible of a shared dorm room.
The 10-part series (mostly half-hour episodes, though the first clocks in at 49 minutes) is fresh and funny without quite being revolutionary. And while they thrum with authenticity, theres also an element of the stock character about our four leads.
Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet, sister of Timothee) is the scholarship girl from humble origins, having to work her way through college and suddenly realising that her class-topping French is no match for an accent honed on the ski fields of Chamonix. Alyah Chanelle Scotts Whitney is the soccer-playing daughter of a Republican senator, and Amrit Kaurs Bela is an aspiring comedian who sees college as an opportunity to shake off the shackles of her Indian heritage and dive into the deep end of the sex pool.
Alyah Chanelle Scott as Whitney, the soccer-playing daughter of a senator.Credit:Binge
As Leighton, Renee Rapp is an upper-class snob hiding her sexuality. That might sound like just another poor-rich-kid storyline in the mode of Gossip Girl et al, but its handled with a winning mix of comedy and empathy and is one of the strongest strands in the seven episodes available for preview.
Each of these young women is, to a degree, a projection of their parents fantasies, memories, desires and needs, at least until they can wriggle their way free of them and forge their identities.
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Never mind the title. The Sex Lives of College Girls is a guilt-free pleasure - The Sydney Morning Herald
Ways to help let go of resentment – ABC Life
Two weeks after Prisha* was diagnosed with a chronic health condition, her long-term relationship broke down.
(*Namechanged for privacy.)
"I was crying non-stop for weeks," she says.
"I had thought we would be married one day and envisioned my entire future alongside him."
After grieving the loss of her relationship, Prisha says another feeling began to replace the devastation.
"I became resentful about what had happened."
Stan Steindl, clinical psychologist and adjunct associate professor at the School of Psychology University of Queensland, says resentment is a complex and painful human emotion.
"Itrelates to a bitter disappointment coupled with anger and fear about having been insulted, wronged or treated unfairly by another person," Dr Steindl explains.
Not recognising people have the potential to be reactive during a break-up can leave us open to further hurt.
While resentment can serve a helpful purpose in signalling something we might need to address or correct, it can often become harmful.
Clinical psychologist and CEO of Relationships Australia New South Wales Elisabeth Shawsays it can lead to even more negative behaviours.
"It can be hard to reconcile or come to peace with what has happened, and that can lead to lingering anger, frustration, rumination and a need to keep discussing it with others," she says.
Dr Steindl adds that "human resentment can often turn into vengeance motivations, and a desire to 'teach them a lesson' or get some sort of 'payback'".
While Prisha says she never felt the need to seek vengeance, her resentment did begin to dominate her life.
"I would talk to my friends and family non-stop. I thought about it when I wasn't talking about it."
While resentment is a commonly experienced emotion, it can negatively impact our mental health, relationships with others and self-esteem.
"Chronic resentment can be a precursor to anxiety and depressive disorders, relationship distress and dysfunction, withdrawal and isolation and sometimes aggression and violence," says Dr Steindl.
For Prisha, constantly feeling resentful left her emotionally exhausted and began to impact her mental health.
"This is when I knew I needed some assistance," she says.
Seeking professional support can help you work through resentment and any related issues.
This was the best option for Prisha.
"I've been working with a psychologistand it has helped me deal with what happened in a more positive way," she says.
"I still have a way to go but I'm confident eventually I will fully let go of the resentment that was holding me back."
Resentment arises from your threat system (an emotional system of the brain, often known as the fight/flight/freeze/appease response designed to help us with threat protection), and specifically some aspect of social threat.
Identifying the threat and feeling of resentment is the first step in addressing it, says Dr Steindl.
Resentment is related to sympathetic nervous system activation, so we want to try to slow down the body and the mind by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.Activities like meditation, massageand deep breathing can help do this.
One exercise Dr Steindl recommends that can help ease body tension and calm the mind: Sit in an upright but relaxed position, relax your face,soften your self-talk so you'reusing supportive inner voice tones, and slow down your breath, breathing in for four and out for four.
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To practise forgiveness and move towards a feeling of ease and peace of mind, Dr Steindl suggests the following exercise:
From this place of calm, Dr Steindl says you can start to consider: What would be most helpful in this situation? What could I do that would help to bring balance back to the needs of both parties? What is it that I really need right now from this relationship?
Resentment can cause us to be "narrowly focused", says Dr Steindl, so to help expand your attentiondo meaningful activities you enjoy with friends and family who make you feel good.
This is general information only. For detailed personal advice, you should see a qualified medical practitioner who knows your medical history.
Shona Hendley is a freelance writer and ex-secondary school teacher from Ballarat, Victoria. She lives with her four fish, three goats, two cats, one chicken, as well as her two human children and husband. Find her@shonamarion.
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Ways to help let go of resentment - ABC Life
How to Deal With Social Anxiety During the Holidays – The New York Times
Sarah Ahmed, co-founder of Wellnest, a psychotherapy clinic in Toronto, agreed. I know for me, I cap out at two events a week, a number that was much higher prepandemic, she said. Use your body, she suggested, as an indicator to tell if youve reached capacity. Our bodies are constantly talking to us, said Ahmed. Common symptoms of social anxiety, she said, include exhaustion, headaches, sweating, difficulty speaking, nausea and increased heart rate. If you are feeling particularly fatigued after a social event, Id revisit future commitments that week.
If youre turning down an invitation, Mr. Lerman said, do it as early as possible, and keep your explanation brief and polite. (That sounds fun, but I will need to pass this time, or Thanks for the invite, but I already have plans.)
On the day of a holiday get-together, vow to be extra gentle with yourself, said Dr. Bryant. Do things that you know will soothe and calm you, like playing music beforehand that puts you in a festive mood.
Make a post-event plan of self-care, too, she advised. It may be that you promise yourself, Im going to have a bubble bath after and a hot cup of green tea, or maybe you schedule a call with a person that you trust, and as soon as you get in that parking lot you know you can call them to debrief.
If you are feeling overwhelmed at an event, create a little space to reorient yourself. Depending on the neighborhood, you can take a quick walk, just to get fresh air, said Dr. Bryant. If the walls are closing in at a family affair, volunteer to be the errand person: Oh, we didnt get enough butter? Ill go!
And its a perfectly acceptable conversation-starter to acknowledge and normalize the awkwardness during this transitional phase, said Ahmed. You can say, My brain is remembering how to socialize, so pardon me if Im still a bit rusty.
If you only feel up to attending an event for an hour, tell the host as soon as possible, said Monica Lewis, co-founder (with her husband, Darian) of the Monica Lewis School of Etiquette in Houston. Or you can ask when the best time would be to swing by. They may say, Oh, make sure youre here for the cocktail hour, or I dont want you to miss the gift exchange, Ms. Lewis said.
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How to Deal With Social Anxiety During the Holidays - The New York Times
How data skills can amplify corporate action to save the planet | Greenbiz – GreenBiz
The historic COP26 Summit in Glasgow sparked big, bold statements by political and business leaders about their commitment to taking action, but the real challenge will be the doing.
How will companies keep their promises and actually achieve them? With all the different measures that can reduce carbon emissions, it may not seem obvious but data skills can play a key role in accelerating ambitious sustainability targets and helping to save the planet.
Many businesses nowadays have incredibly ambitious sustainability targets. Take Burberry, for example, which has pledged to cut emissions across its extended supply chain by 46 percent by 2030 and committed to being carbon positive by 2040. Meanwhile, Unilever has set out to eliminate direct greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and is aiming to achieve net-zero emissions from its products up to the point of sale by 2039. But big businesses such as these wont sacrifice profit, so its vital that sustainable business practices offer both commercial and environmental benefits.
From my role working at Decoded, which trains business leaders and corporate executives on their data and digital skills, I have seen countless examples of how data, artificial intelligence and machine learning can make a company not only more efficient but also more sustainable.
Take Google DeepMinds almost folkloric story. Back in 2016, DeepMind set out to reduce the amount of energy required to cool Googles data centers. For context, the technology company uses around 12.4 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, the equivalent of powering over 3.3 million homes in the U.K. for a year.
DeepMinds all-purpose algorithm subsequently devised a real-time, adaptive system that cut the cost of cooling by 40 percent and the overall energy consumption by 15 percent. This both saved Google a significant amount of money and reduced its environmental impact. (Google has set out to operate on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030.)
Data skills can transform manual processes into automated ones, leading to huge efficiencies, ensuring that employees can focus their time on truly impactful work.
It isnt just the likes of tech titans such as Google that are ramping up their employees data skills. For shipping and logistics businesses such as UPS, more efficient delivery routes save drivers time, reduce fuel use and ultimately increase customer satisfaction. This is especially the case at a time when more packages are being delivered than ever before due to an increase in online shopping as a result of the pandemic.
In the second quarter of 2020, for example, UPS delivered over 21 million packages on average every day, a 22.8 percent increase on the year before. Shaving off just one mile for each of its drivers per day could save the company up to $50 million a year, and this is where machine learning steps in. By using a proprietary tool called Orion, which uses advanced algorithms to create optimal routes for delivery drivers from the data supplied by customers, drivers can alter their routes on the fly based on changing weather conditions or accidents. UPS estimates this insight could reduce delivery miles by 100 million per year, the equivalent reduction in carbon emissions as taking 21,000 passenger cars off the road for a year.
Data skills can transform manual processes into automated ones, leading to huge efficiencies, ensuring that employees can focus their time on truly impactful work.
A relevant case study from our work at Decoded was with a retailer, whereby an employee set out to automate a process previously carried out in Excel that took 20 hours weekly to complete. By creating an automated process using database and programming tools, the business was able to reduce a process from 20 minutes to just 10 minutes as well as create something that could be used business-wide.
Using data skills enabled the retailer to optimize the process, meaning more goods could be shipped through the distribution center. This led to more efficient shipping which has the ability to create a CO2 saving of over 1.2 million metric tons per season the equivalent of more than 2 million people flying from London to New York.
The reality is that that employee didnt set out with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions with their new data skills. They simply wanted to automate a very manual process and save their team time; the environmental benefit was a very positive side effect of their original intention.
Using data skills and machine learning can uncover inefficiencies in processes that humans would never spot or would take a significant amount of time to find. Data analytics and AI can mitigate human error, meaning tasks dont need to be redone, saving energy in theprocess. They can also spot opportunities to use less raw materials. Its important to acknowledge it can take a significant amount of energy to train machine learning algorithms, but over time the energy savings should outweigh this.
Its important to acknowledge how far the business world has come in moving environmental responsibility to the mainstream. But the urgency of this moment means corporate leaders must back their commitments with genuine action and ensure their people are given the tools and skills to achieve these ambitious goals. As corporations move to accelerate action and implementation after the pivotal COP26 talks, its time to realize the commercial and environmental potential of machine learning and data skills.
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How data skills can amplify corporate action to save the planet | Greenbiz - GreenBiz
How to deep fry a turkey without burning your house down and more Thanksgiving food tips – Alton Telegraph
On Tuesday, the Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal issued guidance for cooking on Thanksgiving, including on tips when preparing food not just during the holiday season, but all year.
Thanksgiving is the leading day for home firesinvolving cooking equipment, OSFM said, with four times the average number occurring. Ranges and cook-tops account for almost three out of every five home fires reported involving cooking, with ovens accounting for 13% of those fires.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, each year from 2017 to 2019, an estimated average of 2,300 residential building fires were reported to fire departments in the U.S. on Thanksgiving Day. These fires caused an estimated annual average of five deaths, 25 injuries and $26 million in property loss. U.S. fire departments respond to an average of 166,100 home fires per year involving cooking equipment.
"Thanksgiving has arrived and that means many people will be working overtime in their kitchens. I encourage everyone to check to make sure your cooking equipment is working properly and call a professional to fix them if needed," State Fire Marshal Matt Perez said in a statement. "By following a few simple fire safety tips, your holiday will be enjoyable and free from a fire-related incident."
"Anytime food and flames are involved, we must always remember that fire safety is important. While deep-frying a turkey may add irresistible flavor and juiciness to your Thanksgiving menu, there is also the potential of fire and serious injury when doing so," Chicago Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said in a statement.
When frying a turkey, it's important to make sure not to overfill oil in the fryer. To do so, make sure to fill the pot you plan to use to fry the turkey with water and place the turkey in, measuring the amount needed when there's no spill. This will help determine how much oil is needed without causing oil to spill out when you are ready to fry, which could lead to a fire.
Additionally, use the turkey fryer outdoors only, make sure the turkey is completely thawed before frying and use long cooking gloves to protect hands and arms when handling the pot.
RELATED: How to thaw your turkey safely and efficiently
Tips to keep in mind when preparing food year-round include: Never leave food that you are frying, boiling, grilling or broiling unattended! If you leave the kitchen, even for a short amount of time, turn off the stove. Create a "Kid-Free Zone" of at least three feet around the stove or anywhere you are preparing hot food or drinks. Keep the area around the stove clear of towels, papers, potholders or anything that can burn. If you are simmering, baking, or roasting food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you when food is ready. If there is a fire in the oven, keep the door shut and turn off the heat. Smother small flames in a pan by sliding a lid over the pan. Turn off the burner and leave the lid over the pan while it cools. If you have any doubt fighting a small fire, just get out! Call 9-1-1 or your emergency number from outside the home.
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How to deep fry a turkey without burning your house down and more Thanksgiving food tips - Alton Telegraph
When Denver Lost Its Mind Over Youth Crime – The New Republic
The next days front-page photo of a skinny first-grader on life support, his swollen head obscured in a nest of bandages, became the iconic image for the Summer of Violence, the only Black victim among the high-profile crimes to come. The press chronicled every moment of Brodericks recovery, something Phason remembers even today with gratitude.
Denvers top officials flocked to the mothers side in a show of political unity. Looking uncharacteristically rattled, Mayor Webb held an emotional press conference in front of Phasons home. He declared a war on gangs, asking Black and Latino neighborhood residents to suspend their normal distrust of aggressive policing to end the senselessness. The editor of The Denver Post, the late Gil Spencer, was moved to write a personal column linking the torment hed suffered from almost losing his own eight-year-old child to an illness to that of Brodericks mother. It would make some kind of sense to force-march these gang creatures into the hospital room, Spencer wrote, with his head still bloody, his body a forest of tubes.
A week after the shooting, the governor, the mayor, the police chief, and district attorney linked arms with Phason for a well-publicized Juneteenth march titled Save Our Children and organized by the Black community. More than 1,000 supporters dressed in purple to signify the blending of the red and blue gang colors and marched to Five Points, Denvers historic Harlem of the West. Phason remembered the ugly racist taunts hurled from bystanders along the way: Kill each other, n-----s! I had never seen anything like it in all my life. At one point, a young Crip approached her with an apology and a bouquet. I was trembling, about to cry. I thought there could be a gun up in there, she remembered. It was only flowers.
Like Ignacio in the zoo shooting, Broderick recovered, though he is still slightly impaired on his left side. Again, no arrests were made. Law enforcements failure compounded public anxiety, given the intensity of the media attention. By summers end, Broderick Bells name had appeared in 96 Denver newspaper stories, three times on the front page. By the end of 2009, Brodericks story was mentioned 182 times and featured in eight more front-page stories. Nationally, his case was highlighted by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in an August 1993 op-ed about the Summer of Violence titled KILLING JUST FOR WHATEVER. Denver also made CBS News list of the nine most violent cities in its 1995 documentary In the Killing Fields of America, produced by Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, and Ed Bradley.
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When Denver Lost Its Mind Over Youth Crime - The New Republic
Far East Deep South: Panel discussion on the history and evolution of Afro-Chinese relations in America – SupChina
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Far East Deep South: Panel discussion on the history and evolution of Afro-Chinese relations in America - SupChina