by Pope Francis

Pope Francis Address to the International Federation of Catholic Universities

On November 4, 2019, Pope Francis received in audience in the Vatican the participants in the Conference of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC), taking place from 4 to 5 November 2019 in Rome, at the Augustinianum Congress Centre, on the theme: New frontiers for University Leaders: the Future of Health and the University Ecosystem.

Vatican, November 4, 2019

Distinguished Rectors and Professors,

I welcome you to this encounter on the occasion of the forum of the International Federation of Catholic Universities dedicated to the theme New Frontiers for University Leaders: The Future of Health and the University Ecosystem. I extend a cordial greeting to the President, Professor Isabel Capeloa Gil, [in Spanish] and I thank her for the courtesy of speaking in Castilian and to all present, and I am grateful to the Federation for their commitment to study and research.

The university system today faces new challenges arising from the development of the sciences, the evolution of new technologies and the needs of society, all of which invite academic institutions to provide appropriate and up-to-date responses. This real pressure, felt in different areas of socio-economic, political and cultural life, challenges the very vocation of the university. This is especially the case for lecturers in their task of teaching, and of conducting research and preparing new generations to become not only qualified professionals in various disciplines, but also proponents of the common good, creative and responsible leaders in social and civil life, with a proper vision of the person and the world. Universities today, then, need to consider what contribution they can and must make to the integral health of the person and to an inclusive ecology.

If these challenges concern the university system as a whole, Catholic universities should feel these needs even more acutely. With your universal openness (as in universitas), you can act in such a way that the Catholic university becomes a place where solutions for civil and cultural progress for individual persons and for humanity, marked by solidarity, are pursued with perseverance and professionalism. You can also examine that which is contingent without losing sight of what has a more general value. Old and new problems must be studied in their specificity and immediacy, but always within a personal and global perspective. Interdisciplinary approaches, international cooperation and sharing of resources are important elements, so that universality may be translated into shared and fruitful projects on behalf of all people in the context in which they live and grow.

The development of the technosciences, as we can already see, is destined increasingly to influence peoples physical and psychological health. This also affects the methods and processes of academic study. Today, therefore, we need to remember more than ever that every teaching entails asking ourselves about the why, that is, it requires a reflection on the foundations and purposes of every discipline. Education reduced to mere technical instruction or to mere information becomes a ruptured education. To believe that we can transmit knowledge by abstracting from its ethical dimension would be to abandon the task of teaching.

It is necessary to overcome the legacy of the Enlightenment. Educating, in general but in particular in universities, is not only a matter of filling the mind with concepts. The three languages are needed. It is necessary for the three languages to be brought into play: the language of the mind, the language of the heart and the language of the hands, so that one thinks in harmony with what one feels and does; one feels in harmony with what one thinks and does; and one acts in harmony with what one feels and thinks. A general harmony, not separated from the whole. In the first place, then, we must start from an idea of education conceived as a teleological process, that is, one which looks to the end, is necessarily oriented to an end, and therefore towards an accurate vision of the human person. A further perspective is necessary in the field of education in order to face the questions of why, questions, that is, of the ethical order. This involves the typically epistemological character of education which concerns the whole span of knowledge: not only the liberal arts, but also natural, scientific and technological studies. The link between knowledge and purpose refers to the theme of intentionality and to the role of the subject in every cognitive process. And we thus arrive at a new episteme: it is a challenge, to make a new episteme. Traditional epistemology had emphasized this role by considering the impersonal character of all knowledge as a condition of objectivity, an essential requirement for the universality and communicability of knowledge. Today, however, many authors stress that completely impersonal experiences do not exist: the forma mentis, the normative convictions, categories, creativity and existential experiences of the subject represent a tacit dimension of knowledge, one that is always present and is an indispensable factor for the acceptance of scientific progress. We cannot think of a new episteme from a laboratory, but from life, yes.

In this light, the university can be viewed as not only conscious, but also having an intellectual and moral energy whose responsibility goes beyond the person to be educated and extends to the needs of all humanity. The International Federation of Catholic Universities is called to take up the moral imperative of striving to achieve a more united international academic community. On the one hand by basing itself more faithfully on the Christian context from which universities originated; and on the other, by consolidating the network between older and newer universities, in order to develop a universal spirit aimed at increasing the quality of the cultural life of persons and of peoples. The ecosystem of universities develops when every member of the university, by focusing on the whole person, cultivates a particular awareness of the context in which people live and grow, and of all that contributes to their advancement.

The formation of leaders achieves its goal when it imbues the academic years with the aim of developing not only the mind but also the heart, the conscience, together with students practical abilities. Scientific and theoretical knowledge must be blended with the sensitivity of the scholar and researcher, so that the fruits of study are not acquired in a self-referential way, affirming only ones professional position, but have a relational and social purpose. Ultimately, just as every scientist and every person of culture has an obligation to greater service, because they possess greater knowledge, so too the university community, especially if it has a Christian inspiration, and the ecosystem of academic institutions must respond together to the same duty.

In this perspective, the path that the Church and Catholic academics must follow is succinctly expressed by the patron of the FIUC, the newly-canonized Cardinal John Henry Newman: The Church fears no knowledge, but she purifies all; she represses no element of our nature, but cultivates the whole[1]. Thank you.

Endnote

[1] The Idea of a University, Part 1, Discourse 9, 8.

Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2019

This item 12242 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org

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Library : The Importance of 'Three Languages' in Education - Catholic Culture

Australian fashion label Tigerlily has wiped clean its entire social media after confirming it is moving in a totally new direction.

The brand, founded in 2000 by James Packers ex-wife and model Jodhi Meares, is largely known for its itsy-bitsy bikinis and beach-babe attire, but after 20 years, it has decided to shift focus starting with its Instagram page.

As of midnight on Friday, more than 4300 photos and video content was deleted off its official account leaving many of its strong following baffled by the stunt.

Tigerlily CEO Chris Buchanan revealed to news.com.au it is part of the companys new direction which will focus more on apparel and less on its iconic swimwear range.

The most common misconception is that we are a swimwear brand, but we have been about apparel for the past 20 years, Mr Buchanan said.

He said while they may be famous for swimwear, Tigerlily has always been a ready-to-wear fashion brand.

We will have much more of a focus on apparel given it accounts for 80 per cent of our sales, he said.

Speaking exclusively to news.com.au Mr Buchanan said the label will undergo a complete rebrand, launching a sophisticated yet playful Resort 20 campaign to celebrate its evolution.

This will also include moving away from its signature gold Tigerlily branding.

Speculation of a shift in focus sparked in May this year when the brand chose not to showcase its popular bikinis at Fashion Week in Sydney.

Instead, it focused firmly on apparel a bold comeback statement after having been absent from the runway for 17 years.

Mr Buchanan said it was a conscious decision to showcase a more elevated offering at the time and in part to dispel the common myth about the brand thats its just about swimwear.

He said it made sense to return to the Fashion Week runway on the eve of the brands 20th birthday, with 2019 also marking the second evolution of the iconic Aussie label.

Each collection we create is aspirational but accessible for women, who embrace curiosity for exploring the new things, Mr Buchanan said.

Tigerlily has also seen huge success in the international market from the UK, Middle East and the US.

And all that growth comes from the apparel business. After 20 years, we see it as the perfect opportunity to really crystallise and communicate our new brand purpose, Mr Buchanan told news.com.au

As we expand into new markets and grow with our consumer, comes a refreshed look and perspective for the brand.

After 12 months in the making, Mr Buchanan said the brand was now ready for its next adventure, disregarding the shift as a risky move.

We believe they (customers) will respond well, because our fans who have been shopping with us from the beginning already know what we are about a ready to wear brand.

This is going to bring together a cohesive message across all our touch points.

Since 9am on Friday, Mr Buchanan said Tigerlilys Instagram page has already increased to an extra 1000 followers.

About 50 to 100 people are dropping in every half an hour it has created incredible interest and shows people are very supportive of brands that want to evolve.

The world is constantly evolving, as is consumer taste and we need to evolve to remain relevant.

The official launch of the brands new-look will be unveiled on November 19, but fans will be treated to teasers on its social media, giving a sneak peak into what the labels future will hold.

In an era when experience matters most Tigerlily is for the adventurous at heart who seek fun, freedom and lives in the moment, Mr Buchanan said,

The brand, which offers four ready-to-wear collections and four holiday edits per year, operates 26 stand-alone retail boutiques in Australia.

It also continues to expand globally with Selfridges, ASOS and El Corte Ingles among its growing list of distributors.

HISTORY:

In 2009, former swimwear model and Tigerlily founder Jodhi Meares sold her popular brand to Gold Coast surfwear giant Billabong for an undisclosed amount.

Billabong then sold the business for a reported $60 million to Crescent Capital Partners in 2017 as part of its get back to basics plan.

Tigerlilys revenue was about $30 million in 2016 and was expected to contribute between $7 million and $8 million in FY17, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

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Tigerlily deletes Instagram in rebrand from swimwear to apparel range - NEWS.com.au

From the politicians who reluctantly voted for it, to the millions who must now make a choice and cast their vote, everybody surely knows it: this is a very, very weird election. I mean that not just in terms of the borderline absurd timing, nor the sense that it will not resolve the fundamentals of Brexit, but much deeper tensions and contradictions.

Large chunks of the public seem weary, and ill-disposed to both main parties; to ask a lot of people who they might vote for is to invite long sighs and eye-rolls, and suggestions that the whole thing is ridiculous. It has always been the case that when politicians, party activists and the media dissolve in excitement and passion, most people tend to keep their distance. But now the gap is so big, and political outcomes seemingly so random, that there is a resulting sense of big events happening almost by accident.

The fact that the media carries on with rituals unchanged in 50 years identify the target seats! Bring on the psephologists! Do 10-second vox pops! only compounds the oddness. The best example of the absurdity of what passes for the national conversation is the attention still paid to opinion polling: on Sunday, reports suggested the Tories were variously leading Labour by eight, 16 and 12 percentage points. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage was on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show again. At the same time, the stakes could not be higher: one way or another, its clear that this contest will mark a historic tipping point not just for politics, but the future of the country.

What is it all actually about? As in 2017, there are at least three elections going on at once: the contest about Brexit and the ludicrous idea that we will soon get it done conceived by the Tories and pounced on by the Liberal Democrats; Labours great debate about austerity and inequality and the mixture of both, woven through with the question of independence, defining the battle in Scotland, and centred on the Scottish National party.

The extent to which the public buys into these narratives is open to question: three years of anticlimactic pantomime over Brexit have only increased peoples distance from politics, and 40-odd years of dealignment and waning loyalties apparently mean that nearly half of us might switch to a different party from the one we backed in 2017. Thanks to our creaking electoral system, support for the newly energised Lib Dems, the Brexit party and the Greens could have no end of unforeseen consequences, or very few at all. All that is certain is that those staunchly partisan voices that echo around social media are in a small, somewhat freakish minority: far more people are politically on the move, almost constantly.

Thanks to the means we now use to communicate, what is going on is probably more complicated still. Thousands millions? of personalised micro-campaigns are already unfolding on peoples social media feeds, defined by many forces and voices way beyond the party machines and the traditional media, and often beyond anyones control.

In the digital age, capitalism has constructed ways of blindsiding its opponents and distracting the public at large

Two years ago, a big part of Theresa Mays undoing was the way that an avalanche of mocking memes quickly rendered her a laughing stock; similar things will happen this time, but it is not yet clear who they will affect, and how. Twitter may have suddenly banned political advertising, but that probably means there is all the more reason for plenty of actors to use the subterfuge of bots, fake accounts, and all the rest. We know that CTF Partners, the lobbying firm run by Boris Johnsons confidant Lynton Crosby, was recently caught overseeing pro-Brexit Facebook ads purporting to be the work of grassroots activists. We know too that the Conservative party has hired people closely connected to CTF, well versed in the most slippery online campaigning techniques.

This weekend brought the unsurprising news that Facebooks policy of allowing lies in political adverts will apply to the UK, which will obviously suit plenty of people just fine. Its clear that the Tories are prepared to use falsehoods in their online campaigning: in September, they put ads on Facebook presenting a BBC report about 14bn of schools funding as if it was a fact, when the report in question actually criticised the figures credibility. The fines levied on the official leave campaign for funding breaches related to online activity and sending thousands of people unsolicited text messages shine unflattering light on the presence of many of its former high-ups including, obviously, the prime minister at the heart of government (we now know that a file relating to the former transgression was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service last month). And before anyone on the left starts feeling too smug, let us at least acknowledge that there are those who make the case for Labour online some closely connected to the party machine who have a somewhat loose relationship with fact, and a tendency to pursue their objectives using nastiness and misinformation.

Bluntly put, it is not the 20th century any more, and that is not just about online dirty tricks, but peoples very understanding of what an election means. The occasions when an election could thrash out national differences, decide a victor and then accord them the stability and space to implement their programme belong to another age, along with Thatcher, Churchill, Attlee and the rest. The accelerated, saturated culture we now live in fosters so much irreverence and cynicism that the very idea of people and parties claiming they have all-encompassing solutions to the countrys problems can easily look absurd, something Boris Johnson like Donald Trump seems to consciously trade on, pushing politics towards the absurd as a matter of conscious strategy.

This isnt to say that seriously radical intentions such as those of the reinvented Labour party are illegitimate, nor that all kind of unfairnesses and inequalities are in dire need of those kind of answers. But in the digital age, capitalism has constructed ways of blindsiding its opponents and distracting the public at large way beyond the old opiates of the masses, and it is an onerous task to even begin to shift them.

Clearly, the internet has political benefits that suit progressive people and parties, from the ease of crowdfunding, through the way that activists can quickly form networks, to information channels that can bypass the orthodox and often rightwing media. But at the current stage of the online worlds evolution, these things seem to be constantly overshadowed by the way that the cacophony hosted by the big platforms scrambles meanings, promotes the worst kind of discourse, and sows confusion. This is less about messages than the medium: once politics moves online, it tends to operate in a context of disbelief, cynicism and the kind of endless tribal warfare that rarely achieves any resolution. No one really wins.

In the 21st centurys political culture, few stories develop any traction, and scandal and lies almost seem to be priced in to peoples expectations. As Trump and Johnson prove, politics may now be more about camp, performance and the imperative to crash around the right online platforms than the idea of actually achieving anything. And nothing is ever concluded. What transpires on Friday 13 December will have a big influence on the future. But the day after, the usual noise and confusion will resume, as our politics continues to evolve in ways we are only just beginning to understand.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

See more here:
Elections used to bring us solutions. The 2019 general election wont - The Guardian

Enter the simulated journey into the personified mind of 'Technology'.

Artist AlanJames Burns has announced the launch of an exciting immersive VR experience, Silicon Synapse, a Virtual Reality and psycho-acoustic installation in the historic Carnegie Library, Swords, Fingal from November 13 to December 15 2019.

Silicon Synapse is an immersive Virtual Reality and psycho-acoustic experience that will take you on a simulated journey into the personified mind of 'Technology'. Listening to the inner dialogue of 'Technology's' mind as it replays both sides of a lovers' quarrel. 'Technology' and its life partner 'Nature' argue about the sustainability of their relationship and their future as a couple. Silicon Synapse explores evolution, genetic engineering and transhumanism. Each viewer is engulfed by a conscious dream-like realm, as they travel through intense listening and visual experiences.

You can experience Silicon Synapse within the repurposed historic setting of the Carnegie Library, in Swords, Co. Dublin. This library was once a place of knowledge and learning, shaping the minds and synapses of thousands. Now you have the chance to enter through the remnant doors of this library, and into the imagined mind of the silicon technology, which has largely replaced it.

Created by AlanJames Burns, Silicon Synapse is a collaboration with Writer Sue Rainsford, Artist Jason Dunne and Composer Michael Riordan. The artwork is jointly commissioned by the Fingal County Council Arts Office, as well as the European Commission's SciArt programme, and is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland's Open Call Award. Silicon Synapse is a part of the Fingal Arts Office's 8 year strategy leading to the development of the Swords Cultural Quarter Project. It is concurrently exhibited at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Milan, Italy as part of Resonances: Big Data 2019 Festival.

Tickets are available now from http://www.siliconsynapse.net.

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Artist AlanJames Burns to launch immersive VR experience in Swords - hotpress.com

TheGame of Thronesprequel series,House of the Dragonwas recently announced alongside the launch of HBO Max. The series is set to follow the Targaryen family, 300 years before the events of the main TV show that HBO has become so famous for.

RELATED:10 Facts You Need To Know About House Targaryen

The show is set to revisit the Dance of the Dragons that has been alluded to and talked about in the show and books. There's been spin-off material that's further investigated this civil war, but it's unknown whether this will be taken into account when the showrunners produce the latest Westeros series. We're therefore asking 10 questions that we want answering in the prequelHouse of the Dragon.

Click the button below to start this article in quick view

If the series titled theHouse of the Dragonsthen we're definitely going to be seeing some dragons. The budget for the series is huge and so we can assume that a significant portion of that will be going on the CGI for these fictional creatures.

We know that Westeros was heavily populated by Dragons but we're not sure how many there actually were. Very few could actually ride and control these beasts, but how many dragons did House Targaryen really have? Also, how many non-Targaryen's could actually ride a dragon? We've only seen JonSnow, Dany and the Night King mount the beast.

The dragons originally died out because of the way they were bred and looked after. The creatures were kept inside like dogs and certain characteristics were bred out of them. What was left were dragons that were getting smaller and weaker over the years.

We want to know when this started and whether it was a conscious effort from the Targaryens to control the dragons further. Perhaps this was a plot from an outside source to take the dragons off the table however, manipulating events to benefit them in the long run.

We'd also love to know how much effort was put into protecting these creatures. The dragons really were the main weapon of the Targaryens and secured their power for so long. As they realised that the dragons were becoming just too weak, were there efforts to stop this?

RELATED:Game of Thrones: 10 Hidden Details About Daenerys Targaryen's Costume You Didn't Notice

We can imagine that the house would mourn the loss of their pets and perhaps sought to understand why they had allowed this to happen. But was this something that they actually couldn't control and instead it was a state of natural evolution they were really trying to slow?

There's always been an assumption that the Targaryens are genetically always going to go mad at some point. The mad king emerged from the Dance of the Dragons and it appears this civil war was also based, in part, on the madness of this family.

It's been suggested that this happens because of the inbreeding of the family. However, other royal families have also used the same methods to secure a strong family line and they are not known for the same madness. Having said that, Joffrey was just as cruel and mad, as well as being a result of incest.

We've spoken about the madness that is present in the family, but how many members of House Targaryen are actually mad? A civil war, the likes of which had songs and stories written about it, doesn't start with sane heads in command.

It's very possible that the members of the family responsible for the creation of this awful war were, in fact, both mad themselves. We'd love to know if the kingdom was ruled in a really erratic way during this time period, or whether there were others who managed to right the ship slightly.

Manipulation is one of the biggest games to play when fighting for the throne. During this huge battle it's likely there were a number of players that just weren't being fair. We can imagine that house Targaryen was actually quite easy to manipulate during this time.

RELATED:Game Of Thrones: 5 Moments Daenerys Targaryen Was A Genius (& 5 She Wasn't)

Much like Littlefinger, it's likely that someone was pulling the strings. There has to be some genius in the shadows watching the chaos unfold. If this is the case then we'd love to know who it really was, as this individual has probably been ignored by history.

This is set during an era where many of the major houses still exist. While some are not quite as mighty as they are today, or perhaps are cut off from the rest of the world, there are still some pretty big players on the board.

We really want to know which major houses involved themselves in this conflict. We know the Starks usually try to avoid something like this, but perhaps they were more linked to the conflicts than we realize! What of houses like the Tyrells or Lannisters who are so famous 300 years later?

Speaking of the other houses, we'd also like to know what state Westeros is actually in. Geographically speaking the landscape will be the same, but the physical structures, as well as the political geography, will not be.

We hope we get an opening sequence similar to that ofGame of Throneswhich helps to explain exactly what Westeros looks like in this time period. The kingdom is in a constant state of flux so it will be useful to get some kind of context before jumping into the story.

Every story has a hero and a villain but who exactly should we be rooting for? It's easy to look back on the history of Westeros from an objective perspective. We have no strong opinions on which side should have actually won but it's useful for fans of the show to know.

The show is bound to tell this story from one side and allow us the option to root for someone. It's difficult to tell which point of view they will show us the conflict though, as it cannot be from the eventual winner as both sides essentially lost during the battle.

The White Walkers are said to be alive and well for over 8000 years. This means that during this time period they are very much active beyond the wall. However, was this known to the rest of the kingdom, or was it only really the Night's Watch fighting them off?

There's every possibility that there was a rise that was never reported and that the whites had been defeated once before. The series could completely ignore all of this though as to not conflict withGame of Thronesmuch later on.

NEXT:Game Of Thrones: 10 Potential Storylines For The Targaryen Prequel

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Game Of Thrones: 10 Questions We Want Answered By The House Of The Dragon Prequel - Screen Rant

Modena Nov 10, 2019 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Bper Banca SpA earnings conference call or presentation Friday, November 8, 2019 at 8:30:00am GMT

BPER Banca S.p.A. - MD & Director

BPER Banca S.p.A. - Head of Planning & Control

BPER Banca S.p.A. - CFO

UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Associate Director & Equity Research Analyst of Italian Banks

Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the BPER Third Quarter 2019 Consolidated Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Alessandro Vandelli, CEO of BPER. Please go ahead, sir.

Alessandro Vandelli, BPER Banca S.p.A. - MD & Director [2]

Okay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for joining this conference call today about our 9 months 2019 results. This is Alessandro Vandelli, CEO; and I'm here with Roberto Ferrari, CFO; Alessandro Simonazzi, Head of Planning and Control; and Gilberto Borghi, Investor Relations Manager.

Before going into details about our 9 months results, let me briefly highlight a few key points, which help, in my opinion, to have a clear picture of the state of the (inaudible) after the period, full of important(inaudible) . Please go to the executive summary of the presentation on Page 5, which is already available on our website.

So far, 2019 has been a very busy and demanding year. We are close to the end of this 2019. I think we can be very proud of what we have been able to realize. In few words, we have successfully combined a growth strategy to the enlargement of the group perimeter, with a strong clear improvement in asset quality, and at the same time, confirming the solid capital position and a good level of profitability.

You all know the details of the deals that we closed at the end of July, so let me only express the greater discretion for having positively completed important activities for the growth of the group. As a result, Interbank and Arca Holding became part of the group's scope of consolidation starting from July 2019.

Now I'd like to focus on a few leading points that, in my opinion, represent a sort of a feel of our storytelling. With our 5 key words, the first one is growth. Our group has grown significantly in terms of total assets, reaching over EUR 80 billion of total assets and climbing to EUR 172 billion of total funding, mainly thanks to the change in the scope of consolidation. We are going to see some details in the next slide.

The second word is asset quality. Asset quality strongly improved. Gross NPE ratio now stands at 11.6%, down by more than 2 percentage points since the beginning of the year; by 8.3 percentage points since January 2018; and circa 12 percentage points since the peak of the crisis in [mid-2015] when we had an NPE gross ratio of 23.5%.

Default rate is at 1.6% annualized versus 1.9% in 2018 and versus the peak of about 7% in 2013. All these figures clearly show the strong step forward in asset quality of our group year after year.

Moreover, we have already started the activities for a new securitization of a portfolio of bad loans expected by the end of first half 2020, with the aim of reaching over 1 year in advance the target of the gross NPE ratio well below 9% set in the business plan for 2021.

The third word is capital. Our capital position is very strong, even after the completion of the (inaudible) and the derisking achievements. We have been able to manage capital in a very effective way, and we continue to be very solid with a (inaudible) migration fully phased as of the end of Q3 at 12.36%, up, respectively, by 3 bps versus Q2 and 41 bps versus December 2018.

Profitability is the fourth word. All in all, our profitability is resilient despite the difficult macroeconomic scenario and low negative interest rate levels, even on ordinary basis.

9 months 2019's paid net profit at EUR 522.9 million, which is not directly comparable to the same period of the last year because of the change in the scope of consolidation and some significant nonrecurring items, likely in the third Q, bad will generated by the acquisition of Unipol Banca of EUR 353.8 million and higher loan loss provisions, also in line with expected acceleration of the derisking process.

In the first half '19, we have other negative nonrecurring items for a total of EUR 22.9 million. Having said this, I'd like to highlight the resiliency of revenues, in particular, the net commission, which show a very good performance, both year-on-year and Q-on-Q, and the decline of operating costs on a like-for-like basis as we are going to see later on.

The last word is business. We recorded a positive development of the commercial activity, especially in mortgages, showing an overall increase in the new production by 5.9% and over plus 40% in the residential mortgages segment. Toward the end, we are perfectly conscious that our job has not been finished yet. In fact, we are working on another bad loan securitization, for example. But our track record can make things happen, and our solid capital base and profitability expectations are a good starting point to think optimistically for the near future.

Now let's go quickly into the analysis of the 9 months, starting from the balance sheet. We can move on to Page 7. So first of all, balance sheet and the total funding, the consolidation of Unipol Banca and Arca Holding, significant change this -- the shape of our funding structure, in particular, concerning assets under management and assets under custody.

Total funding grew from EUR 94.7 billion in June '19 to EUR 172.1 billion in September '19, with Unipol Banca and Arca Holding contribution, respectively, of EUR 63 billion and $14.8 billion.

Let's turn to Page 8. So we have direct funding, and we can see more details about the breakdown of the direct funding, which comes at EUR 58.2 billion from EUR 51 billion in June '19, with the contribution of Unipol Banca of EUR 9 billion.

Customer funding now stands at EUR 55 billion, with a large portion of current accounts and sight deposits, which accounts for EUR 46.8 billion, mainly due to the conservative approach of customers to investments in the current difficult economic and financial environment.

The institutional funding dropped to EUR 3.2 billion, mainly due to the zeroing of the repos segment. In Q4, we're going to have maturities of EUR 0.5 billion of retail bonds, of which EUR 0.3 billion related to a Tier 2 bond issued by Unipol Banca, at a very high coupon. This will help our job in reducing cost of funding in the coming quarters.

On Page 9. Here, as I said before, we can see the significant contribution of Unipol Banca and Arca Holding to indirect deposit, both in assets under custody and assets under management and, a lesser extent, Bancassurance.

But it's worth mentioning that indirect funding and Bancassurance stock climbed close to EUR 114 billion. That's an important number, probably the highest after the 2 big group, dependent big groups, in the back (inaudible). And we can see details in the table on the slide.

But I'd like also to underline that on a like-for-like basis, we can appreciate a growth in all aggregates versus December '18: assets under custody, plus 11.4%; assets under management, plus 7.2%; and Bancassurance, 10.1%. Moreover, in the third Q 2019, positive net inflows, both in assets under management and life insurance segment, which represent notable results for the period.

Moving on to 10. Cost of -- gross and net customer loans are, respectively, at EUR 56 billion and EUR 52.5 billion. As you know, our strategy provides for particular focus on mortgages, and within that, our -- the residential segment.

On this side, we recorded an increase by 1.5% on the-- of the stock of mortgages, also supported by good performances of mortgages new production, up by 5.9%, with a particularly strong increase of residential mortgages segment, up by 40.6% versus the same period of 2018 on a like-for-like basis.

In the third Q 2019, we accounted also the well-known bad loan disposal of circa EUR 1 billion of GBV to UnipolRec. The good quality of the performing loans book is still confirmed with very low bucket of high-risk exposures.

Let's turn to Page 11. This page can have a confirmation of the amazing job we have done on asset quality improvement. Gross NPE ratio fell down, respectively, by 2.1 percentage points versus June '19 and 8.3 percentage points versus January '18. It's worth remembering that we stood at 23.5% in mid-2015 . It is obvious that this is not the target we have in mind, and in fact, we are committed to this already further on derisking.

As I've said, we have already started the activities for a new securitization of a portfolio of bad loans expected by the end of the first half 2020, with the aim of reaching over 1 year in advance the target of a gross NPE ratio below 9%, setting the business plan for 2021. We are confident to be able to deliver successfully as our track record clearly shows.

A brief look at the fourth Q '19. We have the consolidation of Unipol Banca and the bad loan disposal of about EUR 1 billion GBV to UnipolRec. In the end, the gross NPE stock decreased to EUR 6.5 billion, that means the ratio of 11.6%. NPE coverage decreased to 51.1% due to the different NPE mix, decrease of bad loans and increase of UtP and past due.

Moving on to Page 12. We can appreciate a significant improvement of the default rate, which stands at 1.6% annualized compared to 1.9% in 2018. We can also focus on the strong improvement of bad loans recovery rate, which comes at 6.1% annualized compared with -- to 5.3% in 2018.

This is a confirmation that our servicing platform, BPER Credit Management, is a very efficient machine, and it is doing an outstanding job and playing an important role within our overall NPE strategy.

Now we can move on Slide 13. The security portfolio went up versus June '19 by EUR 1.6 billion at EUR 18.8 billion, mainly due to the contribution of Unipol Banca, a consolidation of EUR 1.2 billion.

Italian government bonds are at $6.4 billion, EUR 1.1 billion from Unipol Banca, weighing 34.2% of the financial assets portfolio. We continue to follow our strategy to diversify the financial portfolio and not to be too concentrated on the Italian sovereign risk. Total bond and Italian govies portfolios duration are, respectively, 3.1 years and 4.3 years.

Now we can move to -- on to focus on those figures on Page 15. 9 months '19 stated net profits to that EUR 522.9 million compared to EUR 358.1 million in the same period of 2018. The 2 figures are not directly comparable mainly because the change in the scope of consolidation this quarter as well as some significant nonrecurring items in the 2 periods.

On a like-for-like basis, net profit in the 9 months is EUR 143.7 million, including higher loan loss provisions, were also in line with expected acceleration of the derisking process to be implemented through a new securitization of bad loans.

But what is worth noting is that core revenues, NII plus net commissions, on a like-for-like basis and net of accounting effects related to IFRS 9 and 16, but for a bank [under] a strong [reason] as BPER as significant are substantially stable year-on-year. The decrease of NII of 1.1% is offset by the increase of 1.4% of commissions.

Moreover, operating costs declined by 1.2% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis. So overall, apart from extraordinary item, I think that this 9 months results showed some supportive trends, both on the revenue and cost side.

We can move on very quickly to Page 16, where we report the quarterly figures. Net profit of the third Q of EUR 422.4 million and 42 -- EUR 43.2 million on like-for-like basis. Also, in this quarterly view, we can recognize more or less the same trend on a like-for-like basis, commenting for the 9 months results: a resilient NII; good performance of net commissions; decreasing operating costs; and as we noted that the third quarter accounted high loss provisions (sic) [higher loan loss provisions], also in line with expected further acceleration of the derisking process.

We can move very quickly to the main trends related to the profit and loss, starting from the net interest income on the next page, 17.

Here, we can show a resilient NII in Q3, which came at EUR 259 million on a like-for-like basis and net of IFRS 9 and 15 effects, increasing compared to EUR 257.6 million in Q2 or plus 0.5% quarter-on-quarter. For a bank like BPER, under significant derisking process, the impact of accounting changes to IFRS 9 and 15 are particularly relevant. So for this reason, I think it's important to look at the ordinary trend, which shows a remarkable resiliency. On a like-for-like basis, 9 month '19 NII decreased by 4.2% year-on-year, but only 1.1% year-on-year, if we exclude the IFRS 9 and 16 effects. Considering the current difficult macroeconomic scenario and low negative interest rate environment, I think it's now a negligible result.

Net commission on Page 18. We are very satisfied of the net commission trend. In the 9 months, our net commissions stood at to EUR 656.1 million or EUR 585.2 million on a like-for-like basis, up by 1.4% year-on-year, mainly supported by positive overall performance of assets under management, plus 2.9% year-on-year, and Bancassurance at plus 19% year-on-year. These positive results are perfectly in line with our goal to improve our approach toward fees-oriented businesses, in which we are investing a lot in terms of resources.

On Page 19. In the 9 months '19, trading income were positive at EUR 77.2 million, $62.3 million on a like-for-like basis, which is not comparable with the third Q '18 for the presence of nonrecurring items. This is well explained by the call out in the slide, which you can read.

Trading contribution in Q3 is positive EUR 49.7 million, EUR 34.9 million on a like-for-like basis. The increase compared to EUR 5.4 million in the second Q of '19.

Moving forward on Page 20. Also, in the operating costs, the 9 month results showed a good performance. 9 months operating costs stood at EUR 1,071.8 billion, $998.9 million on a like-for-like basis, down by 1.2% year-on-year. The quarterly trend recorded a much more positive result. It was a drop by 8.2% quarter-on-quarter, particularly due to the usual seasonality and staff costs of the third quarter of the year. Other administrative expenses and D&A, impacted by the accounting effects of IFRS 16 and not directly comparable on a year-on-year comparison.

On the pro forma, the needs met our IFRS 16 effect. And the like-for-like basis, administrative expenses, and D&A down respectively by 1% and 10.8% year-on-year.

These are an encouraging signals of improvement given the positive expectations we have on cost side, when all of the actions included in the business plan will be fully implemented.

On Page 21, we recorded in 9 months, higher loan loss provision at $161.1 million and EUR 143.3 million on a like-for-like basis. This was due mainly to higher loan loss provisions booked in the Q3, also in line with expected further acceleration of the derisking process related to a new securitization, we are working on. You know that the aim, as I said before, of reaching over 1 year in advance fixed target of a gross NPE ratio below 9% set in the business plans for 2021.

Consequently, cost of credit raised to 78 bps versus 47 in 2018.

About liquidity. On Page 23. The liquidity position is solid, thanks to the growth of the total eligible assets now at EUR 20.9 billion, increased by 11.7% versus the end of 2018, along with a bucket of unencumbered eligible assets of EUR 10.6 billion, and asset liquidity of EUR 2.2 billion made by deposits with the ECB. Both LCR and NSFR ratios stand well above 100%.

On Page 24, we were able to confirm our solid capital position, even after the completion of the strategic transaction.

CET1 fully phased is at 12.36%, up by 3 basis points compared with 12.33% in June '19 and up by 41 bps versus 11.95% at the end of 2018. In my opinion, this is a very important achievement confirming our ability in capital management and the focus of the group on capital solidity. There are moving -- many moving parts affected the capital ratios in this quarter.

In summary, we were able to slightly increase our CET1 ratio versus the last quarter by 3 bps, with a mix effect of the following factors: related to ordinary activities, we have a positive contribution, in particular coming from retained earnings, including for quarter dividend, showing a good internal capital generation ability.

RWA reduction mainly driven by loan reduction in the large corporate segment and the disposal of EUR 1 billion of GBV, lower amount of deduction and other elements. And negative impact came from write-down related to shareholdings. Related to the strategic operations, we have positive impact from Banco di Sardegna minority acquisition, plus 56 basis points, more than offset by the acquisition of Unipol Banca, minus 94 bps, and Arca Holding incremental stake, minus 20 bps.

Now in conclusion, let me highlight briefly key messages on the Page 26. The main messages we can get from the 9 months results are solid capita. Once again I must underline the effectiveness of our capital management strategy, especially in light of the extraordinary deals, along with a very comfortable liquidity position. This is confirmed by the common equity Tier 1 fully phased at 12.36%.

Second, asset quality. Our current gross NPE ratio is at 11.6%, which can be considered a very good achievement, if we consider that it stood at 19.9%, just at the beginning of 2018.

As I said before, our target is to go well below 9%., and we are taking action to reach this level by the end of the first half 2020, over 1 year in advance of what is embedded in the business plan for 2021 through a new bad loan securitization.

Third, profitability. All of these achievements come with a good profitability trend, net profit and revenues are a resilient and operating costs are showing signals of improvement. Starting from the situation and considering the expected benefits from the extraordinary deals and from the business plan actions, our group has the opportunity to reach a good and sustainable level of profitability going forward.

So overall, we have a satisfactory situation, a good starting point for the rest of the year and for challenges of 2020.

Now, thank you all for your time and attention. And we are going to start the Q&A session and to take your questions. Thank you, again.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) The first question is from Domenico Santoro with HSBC.

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Domenico Santoro, HSBC, Research Division - Analyst [2]

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I do have a number of questions. I might go one by one, if you don't mind. I'm looking at the NII, in particular, and the contribution from Unipol is a bit softer compared to the numbers that you gave in the last presentation. So I'm just wondering whether here is a different accounting or something happened that I'm missing?

And if you can also give us the expected evolution given the funding synergies that you envisaged in the plan, in particular, on the instruments that you mentioned in the call, that are going to expire going forward. If you can mention, please, the average cost of these instruments and the phase out over the next 2 years, please.

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Alessandro Vandelli, BPER Banca S.p.A. - MD & Director [3]

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Okay. Thank you very much Santoro for your question. Let's say, overall, we consider a very positive trend of the NII. Let me say that meaningful results on this line are in line with our expectation. What I can say is that probably try to understand the evolution of the NII for the next year, probably the third Q was the best way to understand what would be the next year trend. Let's say that in the last part of the year, we are -- we have subordinated loans of EUR 300 million. This is going to be a supplier. And the coupon of these subordinated loans is 6.07]. So for this reason, we think there would be an impact also in the last part of the year, but especially in next year.

Analyzing the evolution of NII, let's say that we have some positive elements, starting from TLTRO and the TRIM. And we expect to have a positive impact around EUR 1 million for [month] coming from these elements. And so this is an important point for the NII in the coming years.

And at the same time, you know that we are working on the cost of funding. And in particular, we see room in the funding of Unipol Banca. So let's say, looking at the third Q, the level on NII, yes, it is probably to see a decline in time value because we have a reduction of the stock of nonperforming, but we think that this could be offset by the elements that I mentioned before. So the expectation is to confirm during 2019, the level of NII of the third Q.

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Domenico Santoro, HSBC, Research Division - Analyst [4]

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Nice. On the cost and side -- on the cost side, sorry, if I analyze the level of Q3, I don't know whether is a problem accounting, again. And I add back the EUR 55 million, EUR 50 million run rate of Arca, which was not included in your target for 2021, I get exactly the number that you gave us for 2021. So also, the question here is whether we should include in our model, a better evolution of costs. I know that you mentioned in the press release some seasonality in the fourth quarter because of the integration on top of the restructuring costs, so more visibility here would be appreciated?

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Alessandro Vandelli, BPER Banca S.p.A. - MD & Director [5]

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Well, thank you. What I can say about the fourth Q 2019 is that there would be the cost of the redundancy play, because as you know, we completed the negotiation of the Union. And that in our business bank, we set a range between EUR 180 million and EUR 200 million. And now we can say that probably the cost will be on the lower part of the range, it's probably a little bit under EUR 180 million. But we are waiting at the end of the year to have a full picture on the costs related to the redundancy plan.

And about the restructuring (inaudible) the integration of Unipol Banca, indeed, we have already booked some of these costs in the third Q. So our expectation is something around, probably EUR 15 million, so not a significant amount is -- in particular, related to the integration of the IT. And we are working on this because at the end of November, we are going to have the measure of Unipol Banca in BPER. And let's say, this is another important achievement because you know that to complete the acquisition at the beginning of the year to complete the integration by the end of 2019 is an important element.

Yes. About Arca. Arca in our business plan was not present, is something -- an add-on, let's say, on our revenue and cost. I think that also here, the third Q could be a noncore to understand the evolution. Taking into consideration that typically BPER has in the third Q, a reduction on cost -- on staff cost, this is a typical trend. But at the same time, thanks to the conclusion -- the completion of the negotiations with the union, the expectation is to see, starting from the last part of 2020, some reduction in the cost -- in the staff cost.

I don't know, Alessandro Simonazzi, if you want to add something about this.

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Alessandro Simonazzi, BPER Banca S.p.A. - Head of Planning & Control [6]

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For what concerns the guidance for the future, we expect something better than what we declared in the business plan in terms of cost savings for the future. And so this is why probably you find something better than what we said before. For what concerns redundancy plan, the expectation after having delivered the agreement to the Unions, is to confirm the synergies that we stated in the business plan. Probably, there will be a fine-tuning in terms of phasing, but anyway, we confirm the main figures that we included in the business plan.

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Domenico Santoro, HSBC, Research Division - Analyst [7]

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Edited Transcript of BPE.MI earnings conference call or presentation 8-Nov-19 8:30am GMT - Yahoo Finance

GettyVaughn Benjamin pictured during a performance in Michigan in 2012.

Vaughn Benjamin, the lead singer of Midnite and Akae Beka, has died. He was 50 years old. Benjamins death was confirmed on November 5 through posts on the reggae legends Facebook page. Benjamins cause of death has not been made public.

Benjamin formed Midnite with his brother, Ron Benjamin Jr., keyboard and bass player, in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1989. The pair are the sons of Antiguan music legend Ron Benjamin. An article on their father called Vaughn Benjamin one of the most prolific writers Reggae music has ever seen.

Heres what you need to know:

In 2015, Benjamin reformed the group without his brother and renamed the band Akae Beka. Benjamin said that the bands new name came from the Book of Enoch, chapter 68, verse 20-24. On the bands official website, it says that Benjamin is rooted firmly in the teachings of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie I, his personal evolution and reaffirmed purpose is manifested in his newly declared name.

In an interview about Akae Beka, Benjamin said the new band was all part of the same conversation. Im more or less putting forward what Ive always put forward, which is original music, based in a historical view. Were just doing what we have always done.

VideoVideo related to vaughn benjamin dead: 5 fast facts you need toknow2019-11-05T08:42:33-05:00

Akae Beka had their first performance at a celebration for Nelson Mandela Day in Denver, Colorado, in July 2015. Benjamin said at the time that the concert came about following a life-changing last few months. An article on the bands debut at the time said that the group had been inspired to come together as a result of life changes, convictions and revelations.

Midnite Ras Mek Peace full albumMidnite.. Midnite Ras Mek Peace full album2015-02-05T02:45:07.000Z

Midnite released their first album in 1997, Unpolished. The bands first widely available U.S. release was 1999s Ras Mek Peace. The band recorded the album while living in Washington D.C. A review of the album described Benjamin as being the pure and conscious voice of roots reggae. The review went on to say, Play this record next to any vintage record from the likes of Spear, Marley and Tosh and youll find it on par with these noble predecessors.

Akae Beka Vaughn Benjamin explains why he never came in England to perform Reggae MusicEnglish Version Give thanks to Reggae Vibz Tv for taken 1 picture with the them (France) Give Thanks to Sakina to interview for Fred.Uni.T tv (London) Give thanks for the synchronization by GhostExpertiser (Martinique)2018-06-17T13:16:21.000Z

The band was heavily featured in the 2014 documentary, Escape To St. Croix. In total, the band released 11 albums, the last coming in 2014, Beauty for Ashes. That record was named as iTunes Reggae Album of the Year for 2015.

On Akae Bekas website, the bio says that Midnite were known during their five years living in Washington D.C. for performing three to five-hour sets.

WikipediaBenjamin pictured on his Wikipedia page.

Benjamin said in a 2014 interview with Reggaeville that he had lost track of the number of albums he had created. Benjamin told the website, I think its more than 50. To be honest there are many albums unreleased too so thats why I havent made it an issue. During that same interview, Benjamin spoke about being a feminist, the growing divide between the rich and the poor in the world as well as the growing number of greenhouse emissions.

VideoVideo related to vaughn benjamin dead: 5 fast facts you need toknow2019-11-05T08:42:33-05:00

A biography on Midnite said that the band relocated from their homeland in 1994 to live in New Jersey. From there, the band began touring across the east coast of the United States before settling in Washington D.C. Former Midnite drummer Ambrose Connor said of D.C. at the time, The reggae scene in D.C. circa 1995 was crazy! You could see live reggae music almost 5 nights a week. We played clubs like the Roxy, Takoma Station, Mr. Henrys, Kaffa House, State of the Union. The crowds were always positive and turn out was always good.

VideoVideo related to vaughn benjamin dead: 5 fast facts you need toknow2019-11-05T08:42:33-05:00

When it came to U.S. politics, Benjamin expressed support for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in 2015. Benjamin said in an interview, Bless, man. King Rastafari, bless. Bless all of Vermont, when asked about Sanders.

When asked about the election, Benjamin said that due to his religious beliefs he liked to keep his politics to himself. However, Benjamin went on to say But I do know that being candid, being forthright, being truthful, the people who are most fundamentally based in principle, they will end up having the most appeal in times when people are in desperate situations and looking for stability.

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Vaughn Benjamin Dead: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know - Heavy.com

Cogito, ergo sum, Rene Descartes. Translation: I think, therefore I am.

What makes us, us? How is it that were able to look at a tree and see beauty, hear a song and feel moved, or take comfort in the smell of rain or the taste of coffee? How do we know we still exist when we close our eyes and lie in silence? To date, science doesnt have an answer to those questions.

In fact, it doesnt even have a unified theory. And thats because we cant simulate consciousness. All we can do is try to reverse-engineer it by studying living beings. Artificial intelligence, coupled with quantum computing, could solve this problem and provide the breakthrough insight scientists need to unravel the mysteries of consciousness. But first we need to take the solution seriously.

Theres been a rash of recent articleswritten by experts claiming definitively that a machine will never have consciousness. This represents a healthy level of skepticism, which is necessary for science to thrive, but there isnt a lot of room for absolutes when theoretical future-tech is involved.

An untold number of experts have weighed in on the idea of sentient machines computers with the capacity to feel alive and, for the most part, they all believe the idea of a living robot is science fiction, at least for now. And it is. But so too are the ideas of warp drives, teleportation, and time travel.

Yet, as you can see, each of these far-out ideas are not only plausible, but grounded in serious research:

We could be hundreds or thousands of years away from conscious AI, but thats a drop in theocean of time compared to never.

The prehistoric scientists working on the problem of replicating naturally occurring fire and harnessing it as an energy source may have been the brightest minds of their time, but their collective knowledge on thermodynamics would pale beside an average 5th graders today. Recent work in the fields of quantum computing and artificial intelligence may not show a direct path to machine consciousness, but theories that say it cannot happen are trying to prove a negative.

We cannot definitively say that intelligent extraterrestrial life does not exist simply because theres evidence that life on Earth is a universal anomaly.And, equally so, we cannot logically say machines will never have consciousness simply because we havent figured out how to imbue them with it yet. Citing the difficulty of a problem isnt evidence that its unsolvable.

Somehow, consciousness as we understand it manifested in the universe once. It seems arrogant to imagine we understand its limits and boundaries or that it cannot emerge as part of a quantum function in a machine system by the direction or invention of a human.

But, before we can even consider the problem of building machines that feel, we need to figure out what consciousnessactuallyis.

Scientists tend to agree that consciousness is the feeling of being alive. While we cant be sure, we like to think that animals are living and conscious, and plants are just living. We generally assume non-living things are not conscious or aware of their existence.But we dont know.

The reason we dont know that grass and clouds arent conscious is that we cant measure consciousness. As researcher Philip Goff points out in this article, we can only measure the activity associated with consciousness, not the awareness itself. Goff writes:

The best scientists are able to do is to correlate unobservable experiences with observable processes, by scanning peoples brains and relying on their reports regarding their private conscious experiences. But how do you detect and measure the feeling of being alive?

We know that consciousness cant depend on the kind of feeling that comes from our senses. We can easily demonstrate that none of the five senses are necessary for the mind to emerge. We do not need our eyesight, hearing, sense of touch, ability to smell, or taste buds, or even our physicalbody to be considered conscious (see: brain in a jar).

Two main schools of thought have risen to prominence over the millennia to explain where consciousness comes from: Panpsychismand dualism. The former says all matter is imbued with consciousness and humans got a lions share, the latter states matter and consciousness are separate entities and consciousness works like the religious idea of a soul.

It boils down to whether you choose to believe that trees, rocks, stars, and subatomic particles all have a modicum of consciousness, or if you prefer thinking that only certain entities have the spark humans, good doggos, and dolphins seem like proper candidates.

Theres also a third option: what we describe as consciousness is merely a derivative function of the unconscious act of observing the universe. In essence, consciousness isnt its own thing anymore than an inch or a hour are tangible constructs. Consciousness is, by this theory, just a generalized measurement: our existence isnt necessary to the universe, but our consciousness is necessary for observation to take place. If there were nothing around to observe the universe, it might not exist. An unconscious entity, by definition, cannot observe.

That may sound like an if a tree falls in the woods and nobodys there to hear it, does it make a noise? kind of statement, but its rooted in quantum theory. At the core of quantum mechanics lies an idea called superposition. The tiniest particles in the universe work together to form systems, and these systems determine how energy and matter conduct themselves. These tiny specks manage this by aligning themselves in quantum states where each particle can be one way, another, or both ways at the same time.

Think about it like thetifo fan displays you often see in live coverage of sporting events. The ones where the members of the crowd hold up individual signs to display a giant image or spell out huge words for the TV audience:

At the perfect moment in every quantum system, subatomic particles in a state of superposition choose to end up in one resulting position, another, or both at the same time. Quantum mechanics tells us that quantum particles act differently when theyre observed.

If you can imagine this on ascalegazillions of orders larger than our brains can compute, thats how the quantum universe functions. Probably. Its all theoretical at this point, though quantum mechanics is more like the theory of gravity or evolution in that its a very, very strong theory.

By attempting to replicate brain function in machines, AI researchers and neuroscientists are hunting down the trail of consciousness. Our only lead right now is the organic brain. If we can figure out how real brains work, we may be able to accurately simulate cognitive function, chaos, and organic memory.

Under current research paradigms, simulating a brain is about as close to impossible as a task can get. We dont know enough about how the brain works and, chances are, classical computers will never emulate the mind because they just run algorithms and make calculations. Binary computers, to date, cant approximate thought.

Quantum systems, however, have the potential to simulate naturally occurring processes that classical ones cannot. For example, theoretically,both the human brain and a quantum computer can time-travel to solve problems, classical computers cannot.

Its not beyond the realm of possibility that huge swaths of missing information on the nature of consciousness will be gleaned in the quest to simulate and, ultimately, synthesize organic brains.

This, of course, doesnt indicate that machines will ever have consciousness, but itd be arrogant to assume that technology has nothing to teach us about ourselves. Especially when you consider how little we currently know.

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Opinion: It's arrogant to assume humans will never imbue AI with consciousness - The Next Web

The founders of the Montage luxury hotel chain intend to crack the high-end residential market in West Hollywood with the companys hipper Pendry brand condominiums under construction on the famed Sunset Strip.

The Pendry Residences West Hollywood, which just hit the market, are part of a more than $500-million complex being built on the former site of the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard that will include a splashy Pendry hotel intended to pamper a showbiz clientele.

Pendrys expansion is just one of several large-scale real estate developments in recent years that are transforming the Strip into an even more upscale enclave than before with the addition of hundreds of pricey new hotel rooms, apartments, restaurants and clubs.

The evolution of the Pendry site is emblematic of the change, having entered public awareness as the home of actor John Barrymore, then becoming a popular restaurant location for decades before giving way to the House of Blues nightclub in the 1990s. The club known to passersby for its tin shack facade closed in 2015 to make way for the Pendry project.

Montages goal is to create a buzzing, Strip-worthy hotel facing the boulevard with 40 relatively secluded residences in separate buildings behind it stretching south to Fountain Avenue, where residents will have their own entrance. The complex is set to open next summer.

People who live at the Pendry can dine and play at the hotel, which will have a 200-seat music venue, or retreat to their own small neighborhood where some units will have sprawling landscaped terraces, private swimming pools and outdoor kitchens, Montage Hotels & Resorts founder Alan J. Fuerstman said.

Its like having a Hollywood Hills-style home right on Sunset, he said.

An artists rendering shows the Pendry Residences by Montage Hotels & Resorts, being built with the Pendry hotel in West Hollywood.

(Hayes Davidson)

Laguna Beach-based Montage Hotels is banking on the type of reception its Montage residences got in Beverly Hills, where there is a waiting list for resales of the 20 units completed in 2008.

The last two properties sold there commanded nearly $4,000 a square foot, a top-level price for Los Angeles-area condos, said Tina Necrason, who is in charge of Montages residential arm. We know there is demand.

At the Pendry, prices will start at $3 million, or more than $1,000 a square foot, for a 2,900-square-foot unit. The biggest residences hit 6,000 square feet and have 3,400-square-foot terraces, but the developers declined to reveal their prices.

The growth of hotel-connected residences is an international phenomenon, according to a report last month by London real estate services company Savills. A record number of hotel-branded complexes have opened so far this year, delivering more than 9,000 units in 21 countries, with even more expected in 2020.

Globally mobile, brand-conscious, wealthy individuals are attracted by quality design, security and the level of service branded residences offer, Savills said.

Los Angeles has trailed other international cities in building hotel-connected residences, but others are in the works besides Pendry.

The Four Seasons Private Residences complex is nearing completion across 3rd Street from the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. In Century City, Fairmont-branded units will be included in the renovated Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel set to open next year.

The $2.5-billion Century Plaza project involves renovating the 19-story crescent-shaped hotel, adding 63 private residences in the hotel, building two 44-story condo towers and adding 100,000 square feet of retail space.

(DBOX)

There is a big gap in branded living in L.A. compared to other markets, said Warren Wachsberger, managing director of Aecom Capital, a partner in the development of Montages $3.2-billion real estate portfolio. Beverly Hills real estate services company Combined Properties is also a partner in the Pendry project designed by Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects.

Common amenities for residents of branded condominiums include optional hotel perks such as maid visits and room service. Food at the Pendry will be provided by Los Angeles chef Wolfgang Puck, who broke out on the Sunset Strip with the opening of his Spago restaurant there in 1982.

About 80% or more of the Pendry buyers are expected to be people who already live within a six-mile radius, perhaps with careers in music or other entertainment fields.

People are recognizing that the kids have moved out and Ive got this huge home in the hills, Wachsberger said. They may enjoy hotel services and find a condo more convenient to leave behind when they travel.

The 149-room hotel will be the third Pendry in a growing chain intended to attract a young-thinking clientele by melding elements of traditional luxury hotels with elements of boutique lifestyle hotels that are unique to their neighborhoods.

An artists depiction of a private terrace attached to a luxury residence at the Pendry hotel, being built on the Sunset Strip.

(Hayes Davidson)

In addition to the live entertainment venue, the Pendry will have Puck restaurants, a rooftop bar, a screening room, a bowling alley, a spa and a private membership club called the Britely for people in creative fields. Suites at the hotel will be wired to accommodate Hollywood press junkets, where media members interview stars of upcoming movie and television releases.

The Sunset Strip area is seeing an influx of hotels including 1 Hotel West Hollywood, Kimpton La Peer Hotel and West Hollywood Edition, part of a Marriott International brand conceived by lifestyle hotelier Ian Schrager that opened last month. The new competition will push up vacancy rates, hotel consultant Bruce Baltin said, but overall the market is doing well absorbing it.

Travelers in the fields of entertainment, design and advertising all tend to like West Hollywood as a market, said Baltin of CBRE. Its upscale but very active.

The average room rate in West Hollywood is expected to top $300 a night this year, up from less than $265 in 2014, according to CBRE.

The billions of dollars worth of real estate development in recent years and in the pipeline is changing the character of the street long associated with a raw music scene at such venues as the Roxy Theatre and Whiskey a Go Go. Tower Records, a longtime mecca for fans and artists, closed in 2006. Velvet ropes and bottle service in clubs have damped the egalitarian vibe the Strip was known for over the decades starting in the 1960s.

A Netflix show is advertised along the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in October 2018.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles historian Alison Martino, who grew up near the Sunset Strip and traveled it often with her father, singer Al Martino, said she is troubled by the scale of recent development, which she compared to Las Vegas, compounded by the shift in advertising from painted billboards to bright digital displays.

Once they knock down the smaller structures, no one is going to have anywhere to walk except to another hotel, she said.

But to developers such as Montage and other supporters of growth, new properties are enhancing the Sunset Strip by bringing more people and activity.

A two-block residential, retail and hotel complex at Sunset and La Cienega Boulevard that was completed in 2017 was a game changer, Wachsberger said, that gave the Strip a walkability that didnt exist in the past.

Residents and visitors can stroll the bright boulevard or dip down a block south into a comparatively quiet residential neighborhood, he said. You get the best of both worlds.

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Montage Hotels rolls out luxury residences with its new Pendry hotel on the Sunset Strip - Los Angeles Times

A language is a system of relations; relations between signs and meanings assigned to them which are governed by grammatical rules of combination. When two people know and believe in the same system, that is, in the same meanings assigned to relevant signs, they can effectively communicate through transmitting relevant sequences of signs.

Language is thought to have originated when early hominids brain size increased in volume. This cognitive evolution took place in the Home Sapiens during the Upper Paleolithic Period less than 100,000 years ago. The gene associated with this evolution is FOXP2 that makes language processing possible in humans. Since human language is relational, this progression must have been sudden and must have followed an ascent in consciousness. The ability to draw relations between things is an innate ability of the human mind which allows it to make sense of the world.

Communication systems used by other animals happen to be single tiered, that is, there is a sound that corresponds to a single meaning. This means that the possibilities of expression are finite. Human language, on the other hand, is multi-tiered. It has a finite number of primary elements (alphabets) which can be joined to form a vast number of secondary elements (words) which in turn can be organized using the rules of grammar into an infinite number of tertiary meanings (sentences).

However, the biggest difference lies, not in the nature of the communication system itself, but in the cognitive difference that allows humans to create fictions and project thought into the past and future, whereas animals inhabit a continuous present. This means that humans are uniquely capable of discussing abstract concepts and events that happened in the past or the possibility of which lies in the future. This adds a fifth tier to the human language that is concept. A concept is an abstract entity that allows a human being to make sense of the phenomenological world. These concepts add up to form a world view. A world view is a reservoir of concepts and perceptual data associated with it collected by the senses. This makes humans historical animals. Concepts are drawn from this reservoir at will and compared and contrasted with situations resulting in the negation, affirmation or evolution of that concept.

A human being is a creature that has its existence in language. Human consciousness is embedded in language. An I and you relationship forms the basis of human existence. Thus, there can be no Philosophy without language. This does not only mean that language is the medium through which a philosophical concept is communicated, but also that the philosophical process as it unfolds in the human mind itself is embedded in language. This means that language exists prior to the speech. A human childs consciousness is already embedded in the language before it can learn to say the first word. Language is also the phenomenon that embeds us in time and makes us temporal creatures. An animal is not a temporal creature. Yes, all animals die, but they never experience death, for death is simply a flip between the process of dying and the state of being dead. Death in-itself has no existence. You cannot experience death since while you are alive, death is not, and when death is you are not. Animals only cease to exist as moving creatures. They do not experience death. Only humans experience death, that is, the concept of death, the conception of which becomes possible in language.

Scientists have not been able to find the link between the processing of language by the brain, the consciousness that gives rise to it, and the consciousness that it gives rise to. They can only identify the part of the brain which becomes active when language is processed and the speech impairment that happens as a result of damaged parts of the brain. This is the limit beyond which neuroscience cannot progress. So let us look at the problem of consciousness and language through the lens of quantum physics.

David Bohm (1917-1992) proposed that the phenomenological universe (explicate order) as we perceive it arises from an underlying substratum which he called the implicate order. He arrived at this conclusion because at the Quantum level, explicate order is nothing but disturbances in the Implicate Order. That is, form and matter are mere disturbances in an otherwise still field. This is the case with subatomic particles that do not have a mass of their own; whatever mass they have is because of the speed with which they oscillate. If they were to stop spinning, they would go out of existence, that is, if all the subatomic particles making up our body were to stop oscillating at the same time, we will not drop dead, instead, we will go out of existence instantaneously. We will disappear. Poof! Image a bedsheet with wrinkles.

The wrinkles do not have an existence distinct from the bedsheet. If we were to stretch the bedsheet, the wrinkles will not fall to the floor, they will simply disappear. Bohm extended his hypothesis to explain consciousness as well. He proposed that consciousness was simply the flow between the two orders.

If consciousness is the flow between the implicate and explicate order, then language is the medium through which this flow happens, and creativity is the effect of this flow onto the explicate order. This flow is the collective consciousness of nature and this medium is the meta-language of nature.

For a human being, that is an individual consciousness, creativity means tapping into this river of collective consciousness and drinking from it. But for this exchange to happen, the individual human being has to step into language. This happens as soon as the human fetus becomes conscious. We have already established that language precedes speech, therefore, it is not required for the fetus to have learned a particular speech to have an existence embedded in the language since grammar, that is the ability to draw connections, is hard-wired into his/her DNA. But once the child starts learning a mother tongue (a process which starts in the womb), he/she learns to communicate this outpouring of creativity through signs. Thus we have a sequence of interfaces which makes a relational 8 existence of human being possible: the interchange between the collective consciousness and individual consciousness through language which is built-in, followed by an interchange between the built-in language and a language that is a system of signs which the human fetus learns as a mother tongue. This connection, once established, is permanent. If at any stage the child learns another language, it simply adds another level of interchange, from consciousness to built-in language to mother tongue to the secondary language. This means that expression in ones mother tongue is easier and more profound than when done in a secondary language.

However, there is an aspect of the phenomenological experience that cannot be communicated through language. This is the emotional aspect. One can describe the experience in which interaction with a tree was involved, but one cannot completely communicate how that interaction made one feel. Poetry can come very close to communicating that experience, but not entirely. This is one limitation of language.

But this very shortcoming of language makes a relational existence possible. If I can communicate my experience of being alive to another human being in its entirety, the distinction between I and him/her will disappear. There will be no difference left between one and the other. Opposite poles of a magnet attract because they are two separate entities. If they become one, the attraction between them will disappear. The Sun and Earth attract each other through the gravitational pull. If they were to become one, their attraction for each other will disappear. This also establishes the relationship between man and God as dialogical. Man can only aspire but never become one with God. This makes God the ultimate signified. Between Him and the man lies an infinite chain of signifiers.

Language separates us. Language connects us. We can connect because we are separate. But this separation makes man the loneliest creature in the universe. Man is utterly alone within his experience of being alive which is noncommunicable. Out of this loneliness is born the longing for the Other. That is why man is a stretched creature whose center of existence is displaced. As I am sitting, writing this essay, I find myself stretched towards all my lost loves, my family, my ex-wife, my son.

Language connects us. It does so, firstly, by bestowing us with an identity. When a child can say I am a Muslim or I am a Pakistani, he/she is already the speaker of the language he/she uses to say these words. The phrase I am a Muslim, before being a concept, is already an act of speech. Before the child belongs to a religion or nation, he/she already belongs to a language. This makes the mother tongue our first identity as a relational being. Two things cannot connect until their distinction is not established. Punjabis and Sindhis (for example) cannot connect until they first become Punjabis and Sindhis. This is a true democracy. Democracy takes into account peoples differences.

Coexistence means respecting differences, not eliminating them. Elimination of differences in the way of the tyrant and the oppressor. This understanding of respecting differences to form a stronger unity is the way 9 forward for Pakistan, a country suffering from the paradox of being a nation-state as well as a culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse land. We have to accept that unique circumstances in history led us to a point where we have a country with multiple cultures, religions and languages. We have to make the best of it and recognise and respect others differences.

The writer currently teaches at the Institute for Art and Culture, Lahore as an Assistant Professor.

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Language, Consciousness and Identity - Daily Times