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The Next Crisis Even with the largest bidder in the world on their side, investors can still panic. That would mean a big drop in asset prices, high-profile bankruptcies, and a new crisis. Things move fast. The feds may step in with more QE buying, but they may be a dollar short and a day late. A 20% drop in stock prices is equal to a loss of about $5 trillion in the U.S. alone. The bond market is roughly twice the size of the stock market, so add a 20% drop there and you’re talking real money – a total loss of $15 trillion… which could easily happen in a few days. Now, imagine a drop similar to the 2008-09 plunge… In round numbers, equities lost 50%. Today, there’s about $60 trillion worth of stocks worldwide, so that would be a $30 trillion loss. If the bond market fell in sync, you’d be looking at another $60 trillion or so… or a total loss of market capital of $90 trillion. What would the feds do? Yes, they would buy stocks and bonds. But they would buy at market prices. Owners would still take big losses. And the feds wouldn’t stop there. We are now almost eight years into the central bank’s various “stimulus” programs; they have coincided with the weakest recovery on record. After taking account of inflation, incomes for most Americans are lower today than they were in 2007. Clearly, reducing the cost of credit doesn’t work – even with yields on roughly $13 trillion worth of bonds in negative territory. Fire Up the Whirlybirds So what’s next? When the next crisis hits, central bankers will rush back into their tool rooms and bring out something new. It will no doubt include “helicopter money.” This is the term economist Milton Friedman used to describe direct giveaways of newly minted money without any corresponding increase in the government’s budget deficit. Huge new infrastructure projects will be announced. Tax credits, tax cuts, minimum guarantee incomes – we don’t know what the feds will come up with. But watch out… With the carrot will come the sticks. The feds will impose measures to crack down on tax cheats, tighten the noose on black-market operators, and shut off funds to causes they don’t like. They’ll use their money helicopters to “drone” you. That is, they’ll make sure you do with your money as they please. Mr. Rogoff’s nutty suggestion to restrict cash could become law. Regards, – BREAKING: Steve Sjuggerud launches new product We just discovered a “backdoor” into the world’s most profitable technology stocks. Most people think you need to get in early to make huge gains in Silicon Valley… but there’s actually a much easier and much more predictable way. Learn more. — Recommended Links Don’t touch Gold until you see this A radical new method for gold investing could make you 5 TIMES more money than bullion… beginning with just 60 cents. Details here. Bill Editor’s note: The “War on Cash” is already in full swing… Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Russia have all banned large cash transactions. The European Central Bank just killed the €500 bill. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers wants the U.S. government to end the $100 bill. Eventually, governments want to eliminate all paper cash. In other words, they want to trap your money in the digital banking system. This will allow the government to track, control, and “tax” your money at will. Now, the average person won’t surrender their financial privacy without a fight. We expect millions of people to pull cash out of their bank account and put it into gold, the ultimate “underground currency.” This could send gold prices through the roof. If you don’t own gold already, we recommend you get started immediately. But first, we urge you to watch this presentation. It explains how to take advantage of a little-known “loophole” in the gold market. In short, we may have found the cheapest way to buy gold coins in America today. Click here to learn more. Editor’s note: Governments have tried anything and everything to stimulate the economy since 2008. They’ve cut interest rates hundreds of times. They’ve printed trillions of dollars. Some governments have even adopted “negative interest rates.” Dispatch readers know these radical measures have failed miserably. But that won’t stop the government from continuing to experiment during the next financial crisis. Today, Agora founder Bill Bonner reveals what the government could do when the next crisis hits. Unlike previous measures, this new policy could directly target the money in your wallet. [This essay was originally published on September 12, 2016, in Bill Bonner’s Diary.] OUZILLY, France – We came back from South America poorer but wiser. For the first time ever, we have had to face the reality of politics; up until now, it was never more than an abstract, theoretical matter. We read about the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the passage of Obamacare. We knew politics was corrupt and repulsive. But except for a brief stint on the board of governors of our local church, we had nothing to do with it. Now the wolf is in our own backyard… so close that we can smell its hot breath and hear the clicking of its pearly teeth as it snaps at our heels. More as it develops… Criminalizing Cash But wait… money sometimes goes “full politics,” too. Take poor Kenneth Rogoff at Harvard. He wants a dollar with a voter registration card, a U.S. flag on its windshield, and a handgun in its belt – the kind of money that supports the Establishment and votes for Hillary. Writing last month in the Wall Street Journal under the headline, “The Sinister Side of Cash,” he noted that “paper currency, especially large notes such as the U.S. $100 bill, facilitates crime: racketeering, extortion, money laundering, drug and human trafficking, the corruption of public officials, not to mention terrorism.” Of course, large notes do make it easier for criminals to operate. Like cellphones. And sunglasses. And automobiles with air-conditioning. But that’s what money is supposed to do: make it easier for an economy to function. You use it as you please. Yes, dear reader, we are back to our regular beat. Money. But what’s this? Finally, we’re beginning to see some action. You’ll recall that the markets have been eerily quiet… with less movement in stocks than we’ve seen in the last 100 years. What gives? Perhaps it was the calm before the storm. The Dow fell nearly 400 points on Friday. We don’t know. It could be the calm before the storm. Or it could be the calm before more calm. How It All Ends There’s something fundamentally tranquilizing about having a central bank that gives out the word that it’s got your back. The Bank of Japan is buying bonds AND stocks (by way of exchange-traded funds)… pushing up prices for both. Under its €1.7 trillion ($1.9 trillion) QE program, the European Central Bank bought so many government bonds, it ran out of new bonds to buy. So, this summer, it added corporate bonds to its shopping list. According to Reuters, it will soon run out of corporate bonds, too. Then it will have to follow the Bank of Japan’s lead… and wade into the stock market… if it wants to keep its QE program going. And in the U.S., the Yellen Fed continues to jive and diddle… teasing investors with the threat of “normalizing” interest rates, but having neither the desire nor the fortitude to act. We’ve been wondering how it ends. Bear markets are facts of life. But if the central bank has set its face to stopping them, then what? Central banks – in the current system – can create unlimited amounts of fake money. They can use this money to buy real financial assets. Theoretically, they could buy all the world’s stocks and bonds. And theoretically, they can leave the feds with almost complete ownership of the planet’s capital. The rich get richer (selling their assets to the feds at inflated prices). The poor get poorer (as the misallocation of capital increases… price signals are distorted… and real wealth is wasted). What goes wrong? Everything. As in politics, the gap between theory and practice is as wide as the Sargasso Sea. read more

Add to Queue Twitter January 18, 2017 Columnist at PCMag.com Twitter’s problems stem from being a modern tech company that isn’t growing fast enough. I have two solutions. Learn from renowned serial entrepreneur David Meltzer how to find your frequency in order to stand out from your competitors and build a brand that is authentic, lasting and impactful. Image credit: Shutterstock Fireside Chat | July 25: Three Surprising Ways to Build Your Brand This story originally appeared on PCMag 3 min read Enroll Now for $5 –shares There has been a lot of discussion about Twitter lately, most of it negative — it can’t make money on advertising, growth is down and online bullies remain a problem.Meanwhile, Donald Trump tweets daily; more every day since the election. This alone, you’d think, would draw more attention to Twitter and make it more popular. Twitter actually does over $2.5 billion in revenue, but tech companies are supposed to grow like crazy, not freeze up at a mere $2.5 billion dollars, which is ludicrous.   With that revenue, all Twitter needs to do is have a bunch of sales folks sell the ads and a slew of IT guys keep the thing running. That should not cost billions, although it looks like it does.So what’s the solution to this “problem”?When I listen to all the pundits, I see two solutions. The first is never brought up for any other billion-dollar company: stabilization. In other words, do nothing.In tech, there is a never-ending mad dash for growth. It stems from the late 1990s, when one company would replace another after the simplest of stumbles. The financiers, mostly venture capitalists, demanded high performance growth so they could dump the company and do it all over again with some other crazy idea. This is an unnatural way to do business. Most businesses stabilize and become fixtures. Not so with tech, where everything seems like a fad.Online customers can easily drop one thing and flock to another. Thus, Twitter’s $2.5 billion in revenue could drop to a billion — or nothing — almost overnight. It cannot just stabilize and coast for as long as possible, or die a natural death, or morph the way AOL morphed. It is a spawn of the go-go tech grow-like-crazy-or-die syndrome.The irony is that such companies often get acquired by other growth-oriented places like Google or Facebook. What happens then? They slowly die a natural death … usually quicker.Twitter, unlike many of these operations, has a different dimension, though. It’s a kind of public service. It breaks news and can trigger revolutions or protests. It’s casual, too. Twitter is an enjoyable product if you are not attacked by its mad dogs.That’s not to say there aren’t problems with Twitter. There is some sort of corruption with the “Who to follow” recommendations; it seldom makes sense especially for those signing up for a new account. Maybe that’s part of its advertising, although I do not think so. There is a lot of spam. I find fake accounts daily and do not see how they can possibly remain unless Twitter wants phony numbers. That said, its core users seem content.Which brings us to the second solution, which is simple. Do what LinkedIn did and add a premium tier. I’d pay $5 or $10 a year for an upper tier account. There are over 300 million active users. Sell them something! How hard can it be? John C. Dvorak How to Solve Twitter’s Biggest Problems Next Article read more

Easy Search. Quality Finds. Your partner and digital portal for the cannabis community. Add to Queue –shares Free Green Entrepreneur App Next Article Governor’s Veto Stalls Vermont Legislation to Legalize Marijuana dispensaries.com Voters are far more willing to legalize cannabis than the representatives they elect. Vermont’s movement to become the first state to consider legalizing recreational marijuana without a vote of the people got derailed this week when Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the measure.Scott rejected a bill that allowed for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The measure also created a commission to study how to set up a regulated adult-use marijuana market in the state, with recommendations on how it might work delivered by November.It did not create a regulated adult-use marijuana market, such as voter-passed measures did in eight states, including Colorado, Washington and California (a distinction lost in many media reports). Scott, a Republican, rejected it, anyway. However, he also made it clear he’s not opposed to legalization and left the door open to compromise.The only roadblock to completing a deal will likely be members of his own party.Related: Congressional Cannabis Caucus Unites to Protect Marijuana IndustryNot philosophically opposed.The other eight states to legalize recreational marijuana all did so through a popular vote by the people. Vermont lawmakers wanted to make possession legal through legislation, and also set up a commission that could eventually recommend how the state could create, regulate and tax an adult-use marijuana market.Other states have watched closely how things turn out in Vermont. Some lawmakers in Illinois, for example, are considering introducing similar legislation. Their issue mirrors that in other states – they want the tax money marijuana brings in to help balance the state budget.For Scott, marijuana legalization presents a bit of a legal quagmire. A Republican serving his first year in office, Scott has politicians in his party vehemently opposed to legalized, adult-use marijuana.However, the bill, passed in the Legislature by a narrow margin, had approval of 57 percent of the state’s voters, according to this survey from March.Scott told reporters after his veto of the bill that he is “not philosophically opposed to eliminating the prohibition on marijuana,” he just wants some changes.Related: San Diego Company Bids to Become First Marijuana Business on NYSEFew changes needed.Actually, the changes Scott wants are relatively minor, leading Vermont newspaper the Burlington Free Press to report there might be a deal by summer.Most of Scott’s issues are about kids and time. He wants:Longer sentences for those who use marijuana in front of children or offer it to children, as well as more severe penalties for driving under the influence of marijuanaMore time for the state to study the regulatory structure needed to have a legal marijuana market, perhaps pushing it back to 2019 or beyondThe Vermont Legislature goes back into session in late June and there could be a compromise worked out there. State Sen. Dick Sears, a Democrat, told the Free-Press its “not a slam dunk but it’s possible.”But while Scott has proposed a compromise, his own party may keep it from happening. Rep. Don Turner, a Republican, said the majority of Republicans lawmakers remain opposed to legalization and will not likely change their minds.Follow dispensaries.com on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news. Image credit: Martin Bernetti | Getty Images May 30, 2017 Download Our Free Android App 3 min read Keep up with the latest trends and news in the cannabis industry with our free articles and videos, plus subscribe to the digital edition of Green Entrepreneur magazine. Guest Writer Cannabis Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. read more

What Brands Can Learn From Lilly Pulitzer and Target’s Sold-Out Collaboration Add to Queue –shares Learn from renowned serial entrepreneur David Meltzer how to find your frequency in order to stand out from your competitors and build a brand that is authentic, lasting and impactful. Nina Zipkin Enroll Now for $5 Retail April 20, 2015 Fireside Chat | July 25: Three Surprising Ways to Build Your Brand Next Article 3 min read Lilly Pulitzer’s headquarters in King of Prussia, Penn., is nicknamed the Pink Palace – but shoppers who hoped to get their hands on the preppy apparel maker’s line for Target might be feeling blue.That’s because the 250-piece limited-edition collection sold out almost immediately yesterday – in stores and online – with no plans of it coming back.The collaboration with Lilly Pulitzer is the most recent in a long line of designer partnerships between Target and high-end brands like Altazurra, Phillip Lim, Prabal Gurung, Zac Posen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen and, of course, Missoni, which also had the distinction of crashing Target’s website when it debuted in 2011.Related: Can Target’s New CEO Re-Energize the Big Retailer?Items in the vibrantly patterned Lilly Pulitzer for Target collection ranged from $2 to $150, with the most expensive dress going for $44 dollars. Dresses in Lilly Pulitzer’s main collection retail from $88 to $348 and are sold at high-end retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom, as well as through the company’s website.Many of these high-low collaborations have been wildly popular, but do they actually help or hinder brands in the long run? Laura Ries, co-founder of branding consultancy Ries & Ries, says while this latest collection sold instantaneously, she wonders how it will impact Lilly Pulitzer’s core business – and if future high-low partnerships could end up devaluing it down the line.Related: You Don’t Create Your Company’s Brand — You Discover It.”The more popular it is at Target, the worse it is for Lilly Pulitzer the brand,” she says. “You see the same things happen with the outlets for some brands. Look at what happened to Coach; their outlet business went like hotcakes because you were getting Coach bags at the third of the price and, long term, it hit the exclusivity of their core business. Part of what drives high-end fashion is exclusivity.”Denise Lee Yohn, a retail consultant and the author of What Great Brands Do, says that though the prices were considerably lower, the limited nature of Lilly’s line at Target could end up bolstering the company’s exclusive reputation. “Even among the mass consumers that have an opportunity to buy it, it’s pretty much guaranteed they are going to get shut out…It almost makes the brand even more in-demand.”Related: How Can I Tell If There Will Be Strong Demand for My Product?Lee Yohn says she thinks that the collaborations are often a win-win, the designers can promote their brand and reach a different customer base while the Targets of the world can elevate their retail brand by association with the high end and exclusive. However, there is a downside to the frenzy: the reselling (and requisite marking up) of these hot-ticket items on sites like eBay. “That is less of a win for the retailer and the designer, because then it diminishes the strategy they are trying to implement.”Lee Yohn said that while it might inspire a raft of social media criticism, to protect the equity of the brand, next time, Target might want to look into setting a limit on how many items people could purchase. “In the long run, it might be a smarter way to do it.” Related: 7 Innovators That Changed Retail Forever Staff Writer. Covers leadership, media, technology and culture. Entrepreneur Staff Image credit: Target read more

Source:https://news.rutgers.edu/news-release/rutgers-school-health-professions-awarded-42-million-improve-mental-health-services/20181030#.W-Rz0XpKi4Q Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Nov 9 2018Rutgers School of Health Professions has received a $4.2 million federal grant to train mental health practitioners as part of a new effort by the U.S. Department Health and Human Services to improve mental health services nationwide.With the grant, Rutgers’ Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling is creating a regional Mental Health Technology Transfer Center – one of 10 nationwide – to support practitioners and provider organizations that offer treatment, prevention and recovery services.”One of the federal program’s key goals is to expedite the transfer of evidence-based research into practice,” said Kenneth Gill, chair of the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling and the grant’s principal investigator.On average, Gill said, there is a 17-year lag in implementing evidence-based research into practice in health care settings, and that delay is typically longer in the area of mental health.”There are problems that are seen as unsolvable. But we have ways to address them – such as strategies for reducing homelessness, chronic unemployment, and unnecessary incarceration among people who are mentally ill – and they are not being used,” Gill said. “If the research-based practices are better implemented, there will be better outcomes for people with serious mental illnesses.”The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration established the national network of centers as part of a new approach to making effective mental health disorder treatments, support services, and evidence-based practices widely available to people with mental illness.The Rutgers center’s regional area of service includes New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where increases in depression, anxiety, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder have been reported in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.Related StoriesParticipation in local food projects may have positive effect on healthHospitals’ decision to transfer kids with mental health emergencies is based on insurance type‘Climate grief’: Fears about the planet’s future weigh on Americans’ mental healthWorking with providers, state administrators, community organizations, service participants, teachers, administrators, school staff and families, the center will determine workforce development needs and provide in-person and online training, technical assistance and resource dissemination, said Ann Murphy, program director of Rutgers School of Health Profession’s Ph.D. in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, and the grant project director.It will also focus on the needs of the Hispanic population, creating English and Spanish online repositories for information, materials and resources.The center, which will be located on Rutgers School of Health Profession’s Piscataway campus, will launch its work in November with conferences, train-the-trainer training and online courses. It is expected to be fully operational in 2019, according to Gill.”Rutgers Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling has been a national leader in innovative practices, with a community focus, for people with serious mental illnesses,” said Dean Gwendolyn Mahon. “It has provided educational and technical assistance services to New Jersey for 17 years, and more recently, New York and Washington states, and the City of New York.”Gill is a leading researcher in New Jersey in the field of mental illness, specializing in the areas of health and wellness, education and employment among people with serious mental illness. His research on jail diversion for those with mental illness led to the establishment of jail diversion programs in multiple New Jersey counties. He has authored a textbook entitled Psychiatric Rehabilitation. read more

Explore further This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. More information: Matheus Thomas Kuska et al. Spectral Patterns Reveal Early Resistance Reactions of Barley Against Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei, Phytopathology (2017). DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-04-17-0128-R Mirwaes Wahabzada et al. Plant Phenotyping using Probabilistic Topic Models: Uncovering the Hyperspectral Language of Plants, Scientific Reports (2016). DOI: 10.1038/srep22482 AI is acquiring a sense of smell that can detect illnesses in human breath Citation: Combating hunger with artificial intelligence (2018, June 22) retrieved 18 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2018-06-combating-hunger-artificial-intelligence.html Journal information: Scientific Reports Almost 800 million people worldwide suffer from malnutrition. In the future there could be around 9.7 billion people—around 2.2 billion more than today. Global demand for food will increase as climate change leaves more and more soil infertile. How should future generations feed themselves?Kristian Kersting, Professor of Machine Learning at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, and his team see a potential solution in the application of artificial intelligence (AI). Machine learning, a special method of AI, could be the basis for so-called precision farming, which could be used to achieve higher yields on areas of equal or smaller size. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Partners are the Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES) at the University of Bonn and the Aachen-based company Lemnatec.”First of all, we want to understand what physiological processes in plants look like when they suffer from stress,” said Kersting. “Stress occurs, for example, when plants do not absorb enough water or are infected with pathogens. Machine learning can help us to analyse these processes more precisely.” This knowledge could be used to cultivate more resistant plants and to combat diseases more efficiently.The researchers installed a hyperspectral camera that records a broadwave spectrum and provides deep insights into the plants. The more data available on the physiological processes of a plant during its growth cycle, the better a software is able to identify recurring patterns that are responsible for stress. However, too much data can be a problem, as the calculations become too complex. The researchers therefore need algorithms that use only part of the data for learning without sacrificing accuracy.Kersting’s team found a clever solution: To evaluate the data, the team used a highly advanced learning process from language processing, which is used, for example, at Google News. There, an AI selects the relevant articles for the reader from tens of thousands of new articles every day and sorts them by topic. This is done using probability models in which all words of a text are assigned to a specific topic. Kersting’s trick was to treat the hyperspectral images of the camera like words: The software assigns certain image patterns to a topic such as the stress state of the plant.The researchers are currently working on teaching the software to optimise itself using deep learning and to find the patterns that represent stress more quickly. “A healthy spot can for instance be identified from the chlorophyll content in the growth process of the plant,” said Kersting. “When a drying process occurs, the measured spectrum changes significantly.” The advantage of machine learning is that it can recognise such signs earlier than a human expert, as the software learns to pay attention to more subtleties.It is hoped that someday, cameras can be installed along rows of plants on an assembly line in the greenhouse, allowing the software to point out abnormalities at any time. Through a constant exchange with plant experts, the system should also learn to identify even unknown pathogens. “Ultimately, our goal is a meaningful partnership between human and artificial intelligence, in order to address the growing problem of world nutrition,” says Kersting. In order to improve world food conditions, a team around computer science professor Kristian Kersting was inspired by the technology behind Google News. Provided by Technische Universitat Darmstadt read more

SHARE SHARE SHARE EMAIL June 26, 2019 Published on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Wednesday said that a fifth reservoir, that would help quench the thirst of Chennaiites, was nearing completion.The Chief Minister made the remarks at a review meeting of various works undertaken by the Public Works Department, including the creation of the reservoir in the Tiruvallur district.Palaniswami, who holds the PWD portfolio, said 95 per cent of construction work of the new dam has been completed. “The remaining five per cent work will be finished in two months and the government will take steps to store water there in the coming monsoon and ensure unhindered supply to people,” he added.The scheme, announced by the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2012, involves linking of the Kannankottai and Thervoykandigai lakes in that district and a reservoir created to store 1 tmc ft of water to cater to Chennai’s needs.The city’s drinking water requirement is presently met from reservoirs at Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarambakkam, all of whom have now dried up, leading to water shortage in the metropolis.According to an official release, the Chief Minister reviewed various works such as construction and maintenance of reservoirs, water rejuvenation schemes, and the government’s ambitious ‘Kudimaramathu’ scheme, which involves community participation in the maintaining water bodies. Palaniswami also directed officials to expedite work on five intra-state river linking projects, the release said. Tamil Nadu Chennai COMMENT water supply Edappadi K Palaniswami, Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu (File photo) COMMENTS read more