Daily Archives: August 19, 2020

AI TECHNOLOGY IS AT YOUR DOOR

AI TECHNOLOGY IS AT YOUR DOOR

The robot revolution has arrived

AI TECHNOLOGY IS AT YOUR DOOR

Machines now perform all sorts of tasks:

They clean big stores, patrol borders and help autistic children.

But will they make life better for humans?

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably never met a robot. But you will.

I met one on a windy, bright day last January, on the short-grass prairie near Colorado’s border with Kansas,

In the company of a rail-thin 31-year-old from San Francisco named Noah Ready-Campbell.

To the south, wind turbines stretched to the horizon in uneven ranks, like a silent army of gleaming three-armed giants. In front of me was a hole that would become the foundation for another one.

A Caterpillar 336 excavator was digging that hole—62 feet in diameter,

With walls that slope up at a 34-degree angle, and a floor 10 feet deep and almost perfectly level.

The Cat piled the dug-up earth on a spot where it wouldn’t get in the way; it would start a new pile when necessary.

Every dip, dig, raise, turn, and drop of the 41-ton machine required firm control and well-tuned judgment.

In North America, skilled excavator operators earn as much as $100,000 a year.

The seat in this excavator, though, was empty.

The operator lay on the cab’s roof.

It had no hands; three snaky black cables linked it directly to the excavator’s control system.

It had no eyes or ears either, since it used lasers, GPS, video cameras,

And gyroscope-like sensors that estimate an object’s orientation in space to watch over its work.

Ready-Campbell, co-founder of a San Francisco company called Built Robotics, clomped across the coarse dirt,

Climbed onto the excavator, and lifted the lid of a fancy luggage carrier on the roof.

Inside was his company’s product—a 200-pound device that does work that once required a human being.

“This is where the AI runs,” he said, pointing into the collection of circuit boards, wires, and metal boxes that made up the machine:

Sensors to tell it where it is, cameras to let it see, controllers to send its commands to the excavator, communication devices that allow humans to monitor it,

And the processor where its artificial intelligence, or AI, makes the decisions a human driver would.

“These control signals get passed down to the computers that usually respond to the joysticks and pedals in the cab.”

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DAWG SAYS: THEY ARE ALREADY BECOMING FAIRLY POPULAR IN THE BEDROOM

AMERICAS FIRST BLACK VP CANDIDATE

AMERICAS FIRST BLACK VP CANDIDATE

68 YEARS AGO, THIS WOMAN WAS THE FIRST BLACK VP CANDIDATE

Charlotta A. Bass was a Progressive Party candidate for vice president in 1952.

Charlotta Bass strode onto a stage in Chicago and gave a speech as the first Black female candidate for Vice President.

As a candidate for the nation’s second highest office under the Progressive Party ticket in 1952, she addressed convention attendees on March 30 that year.

“I stand before you with great pride,” she said. “This is a historic moment in American political life.

Historic for myself, for my people, for all women.

For the first time in the history of this nation a political party has chosen a Negro woman for the second highest office in the land.”

While Kamala Harris became the first Indian-American and first Black woman this week to run for Vice President on a major party ticket, Bass came before her decades ago in that long-shot bid.

In a nod to her minimal chances of winning, Bass’ campaign slogan was, “Win or lose, we win by raising the issues.” Her party lost to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, but her campaign decades ago helped open doors for minority candidates today, according to experts.

“Bass certainly paved the way for the Kamalas of today, in terms of both her identity and her politics of coalition-building,”

Said Keisha N. Blain, associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh,

And author of “Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom.”

“But it is equally important to talk about the countless Black women whose labor has formed the backbone of the Democratic Party.

Too often, we only notice the names at the top of the ticket.”

AMERICAS FIRST BLACK VP CANDIDATE IN 1952

Vincent Hallinan (left) Progressive candidate for President, Charlotta Bass and Paul Robeson.

Bass made history before she ran for VP

Bass started making history long before she ran for office.

The activist turned politician was born in South Carolina in 1874.

She later moved to the West Coast, where she became one of the first African American women to own and operate a newspaper — the California Eagle.

Her fight against injustice started decades before her political bid.

She used her newspaper as a platform to highlight issues such as police brutality, restrictive housing, the Ku Klax Klan and civil liberties.

She was such a major advocate for civil liberties, women’s rights and immigration, she received death threats.

The FBI also placed her under surveillance after she was labeled a communist, government records show.

When Bass’ husband died in 1934, she ramped up her activism by joining groups fighting against injustices.

She was also the founder of the National Sojourner for Truth and Justice Club, which worked to improve working conditions for Black women.

“Throughout her career, Bass evolved and worked with various political groups,

Capturing the richness and complexity of Black politics,” Blain said.

She served as president of a chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association,

Engaged with the more moderate NAACP, and was a leader among leftists and communists in the Sojourners for Truth and Justice, she added.

“Bass’s ability to move within radical and more mainstream circles — and her ability to draw significant insight from each

Is an important lesson for Harris as she strives to craft a successful political coalition with Biden,” Blain said.

While Bass was a key figure in politics,

Blain said, equally important are Charlene Mitchell, Shirley Chisholm and countless of other Black women who’ve worked —

Oftentimes behind the scenes — to make minorities in politics mainstream.

“Mitchell ran for President on the Communist Party ticket in 1968, and Chisholm campaigned in the 1972 Democratic presidential primary.

These women paved the way for Harris and other Black women in presidential politics,” she said.

The Progressive Party candidate for President was Vincent Hallinan,

An attorney who ran for office from behind bars after he was jailed on contempt charges.

Denise Lynn, a history professor at University of Southern Indiana,

Said that the Progressive Party was opposed to the United States serving as a global police force,

Especially in countries where the majority of people were not White.

“The Progressive Party ran … on a platform that opposed militarism, war, and political contest with the Soviet Union,

In favor of social justice, economic equality and peace.

Bass was instrumental in getting the Progressive Party on the ballot in California,” Lynn wrote in a piece published this year.

Hallinan got about 140,000 votes.

DAWG SAYS: IF YOU ARE LABELED A COMMUNIST AND BEING SURVEILED BY THE FBI

YOU ARE TOUCHING A NERVE AND MAY BE MAKING A POSITIVE NOISE.

CONSIDER IT A BADGE OF HONOR


IS THE EARTH CHANGING? (VIDEO)

IS THE EARTH CHANGING?

A growing dent in Earth’s magnetic field could impact satellites and spacecraft

A growing dent in Earth’s magnetic field over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean could pose a risk to spacecraft and satellites.

This evolving weak spot in the magnetic field, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, is being monitored by NASA,

But the space agency said it will not affect us here on Earth.

The magnetic field protects us, acting as a shield against the solar wind — stream of charged particles and radiation,

That flows out from the sun. This field’s protection also extends to include satellites orbiting close to Earth.

But the South Atlantic Anomaly is allowing solar particles to get closer than before.

Solar radiation could have a negative effect as satellites pass through this area,

Knocking out their computers and interfering with data collection, according to NASA.

IS THE EARTH CHANGING? MAGNETIC FIELD MAYBE

Earth’s magnetic field protects our planet from an outflow of charged particles and radiation that stream out from the sun.

The South Atlantic Anomaly, new data has also shown, is weakening and expanding westward.

Moreover, it’s splitting into two lobes, rather than one large one, which will cause further headaches for managing satellite missions.

Across a host of research areas, NASA scientists are monitoring the anomaly to prepare for those challenges, as well as how it could affect humans in space.

Earth scientists at NASA are also monitoring the anomaly to see how these localized changes in the strength of the magnetic field could affect our atmosphere.

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