Published Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, 8:45 am

Front Page Business Artificial intelligence in the arms race: Commentary by Avi Ben Ezra

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Artificial intelligence is at the epicenter of the arms race, and whoever has superior AI will win.

For most people, the threat of AI has been limited to economic dislocation and the sci-fi robotic apocalypse. Yet, AI advancements are taking place in the private sector, outside governments control or scrutiny, and there is speculation that it is quietly being used for defense. Experts believe that a new arms race is developing particularly between United States and China.

The Chinese president realized the power of AI, and its superhuman capacity to think, after AlphaGo defeated the number one Go player. He obviously foresees, like some experts, AI evolving the ability to rewrite its own code in a few years time and exploding its IQ as high as 10,000. Humans will be like ants compared to such intelligent giants.

Achieving this artificial superintelligence will require breakthroughs in transformative technology whose circumstances and timing cannot be predicted at present. However, President Xi and other presidents saw the possibilities of AI in the global balance of power when AlphaGo won in Go, a game of strategy.

Strategy games come in two types. First, there are games of complete information, such as Tic-Tac-Toe, chess and Go in which players see all the parameters and options of the other players. Such games are generally easily be won with practice. Then there are games of incomplete information, such as Rock, Scissors, Paper, in which players can learn the rules and know the optimal strategy. However, no one is certain how the opponent will play so there is no definite winning strategy and winning is left to chance.

Humans used to win games against computers at one time and there was belief that humans ability to think abstractly and to narrow down decision making to a few good choices would always beat the computer. Then in 2016, AlphaGo, an AI system, defeated the Go world champion 4-1. In 2018, AlphaZero, a new AI system with ability to self-learn, defeated AlphaGo 100-0 by accumulating knowledge and inventing unheard-of strategies within 40 days. In 2017, AlphaZero was pitted against Stockfish in 100 games and, within 9 hours of learning the chess game, it won 28 games, drew 72 games and lost none. No chess grandmaster has ever beaten Stockfish yet AI superintelligence beat it.

In 2017, Libratus, another AI system, beat the best poker players in No-limit Texas Holdem, a poker game. In 2019, Pluribus beat multiple top professional poker players at the rate of 5 big blinds per hour. Poker is a game of incomplete information, uncertainty, and complexity that combines strategy, mathematics, psychology, timing and luck.

By the beginning of 2020, AI had beaten all human players and the best computer programs ever designed.

Avi Ben Ezra the CTO of the SnatchBot chatbot platform says It is normal that most analysts talk about the US and China, but actually, with the military chatbots that we created you have in excess of 40 countries who tackle a range of issues from information warfare to cybersecurity and fraud detection with clever AI chatbots that are integrated with robotic process automation (RPA).

Poker mimics life because of uncertainty. In the US-China rivalry, Chinas objective is to replace America as the dominant superpower. It knows Americas defense budget, force development plans and probably its military resources, capabilities and specifications to a certain degree. However, Americas alliances keep shifting, its capabilities and projects are classified and international crises are unpredictable. Therefore, the best that China can do is to invest optimally in order to exploit Americas weaknesses while managing its own risks and weaknesses. The US will do the same. Both countries defense planners are compromised in their outcomes by bureaucracy, internal rivalry, politics and vested interests. Theres obviously a lot of uncertainty.

Since AI beats the best humans in poker, its capability is obviously being tested in defense. In a few years, AI systems will be making all military decisions as generals that never tire, have no fear, are never distracted, and always perform at their peak. No human decision makers can compete.

Under those circumstances, the country with slightly worse AI will lose every battle and the winner will control AI. No one knows how its going to play out, but its certain that AI will lead the arms race as each nation places it at the very core of national achievement.

Bringing AI and RPA together from a military perspective is just like with any other organization: it improves efficiency and drives down cost. Yet the key issue is obviously that maintaining a technological edge, is at the heart of the strategy for several opposing players in the game.

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Julie Kanner @jfkanner Friday Feb7,2020at1:08PM

Chief Retail Services Specialist Seth A. Lowry, from Jacksonville, was named as a 2019 Military Instructor of the Year finalist.

Chief Retail Services Specialist Seth A. Lowry, a native of Jacksonville and a 2002 graduate of First Coast Academy, was recently named as a 2019 Military Instructor of the Year finalist for the Naval Education and Training Command.

Lowry was recognized during a ceremony at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola on Jan. 23. The finalists were congratulated by Rear Adm. Kyle Cozad.

Lowry is a course supervisor at Naval Technical Training Center in Meridian, Miss., and is qualified as a master training specialist. He provides training to over 200 students. He was one of 10 sailors competing for the NETC Military Instructor of the Year title. They represent the top achievers out of over 8,000 military members in MyNavy HR Force Development.

Lowry was awarded a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his achievements.

Related | Read more good news stories from the Jacksonville area

The Naval Education and Training Command Military Instructor of the Year program recognizes sailors who exhibit sustained superior performance, leadership, mentorship, knowledge and teaching of military history and heritage, self-improvement, command and community involvement, and exemplary military bearing.

Have good news? You can mail to The Florida Times-Union, P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231 or email jkanner@jacksonville.com.

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Good News: Sailor from Jacksonville named Military Instructor of the Year finalist - The Florida Times-Union

How I Lost 10 Pounds in a Month With Orangetheory Fitness

Ever since I graduated college six years ago, my weight has truly been all over the place. When I left school, I weighed in at about 120 pounds. And while I was certainly thin, I wasn't exactly taking the best care of myself. In the years since, thanks to working out inconsistently and having a desk job, I packed on 32 pounds. Because it was a gradual gain, I didn't notice it at first. But when I stepped on the scale in late December and realized I was 152 pounds, I knew something needed to change.

While I knew at 5'4" I wasn't disastrously overweight, the fact that I had been getting a little too much into the wine and cheese since my July wedding hit me like a burst of cold water. As a former college athlete, I knew I could do a lot more to improve my overall health, and I desperately wanted to carve out new healthy habits.

While my foray into Orangetheory Fitness started with the goal of simply shedding some pounds, it quickly became much, much more. I first learned about OTF when POPSUGAR's Senior Editor Kate Schweitzer made it a regular habit. After having two gorgeous daughters, she started hitting classes five times per week at her local studio. And while she's always been in good shape, it was hard to deny how toned her arms had gotten during our weekly meetings.

Fortunately, Kate wasn't the only person who was drinking the Orangetheory Kool-Aid; Sarah Wasilak, our fashion editor, also went to class a few times per week. And thankfully, she not only attended our local studio in Jersey City, but she also enthusiastically offered to take me to my first class. As a person who had generally loathed group exercise classes in the past, I was eager to try an OTF class but overwhelmed. Why did they need to track your heart rate the entire time? What in god's name are Splat points?

Nervous but cautiously optimistic, I headed to my first class with Sarah one day at 7 a.m. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by studio employee Wesley Barranco, who had one simple question for me: "What's your goal?" After confessing my love of cheese I kept the wine out of the convo for obvious reasons and telling him about my weight-loss goals, he gave me a confident smile and the rundown. While his spiel was certainly informative, I didn't at any point feel intimidated, which is key for those trying to get back on the fitness horse.

Eventually, I was introduced to Herlentz Mesidor, the head coach of the studio and the person who'd no doubt be bossing me around for an hour. As the big kahuna, Herlentz is obviously a very fit man. It's also worth noting that he is one of the few people on god's green earth who can pull off wearing a sweatband on his head.

Herlentz spent 15 minutes teaching me how the class is formatted and had me jump on a rowing machine to evaluate my form. (Spoiler alert: I've been rowing incorrectly for my entire life!). After getting set up with an OTbeat wearable device, we got to it, and honestly, I was amazed.

While I normally get bored in classes that just focus on cardio, the three-pronged format OTF offers time spent running, rowing, and lifting weights really suited me. Additionally, Herlentz didn't scream into the microphone the entire time. On top of pumping us up, he also made his rounds to ensure we were lifting with the correct form and using the treadmills properly.

At the end of my first class, I'd burned 650 calories. I've never had a more efficient workout since I played lacrosse in college. On top of that, I truly felt great. Maybe it was the endorphins, but I immediately signed up for a package of classes and have been going two or three days per week ever since.

While my initial goal was to lose weight and hey, it still very much is! in just five weeks, my body has begun to transform. I have noticed more muscle tone in my legs, and I've lost considerable weight in my face. I feel more confident in a bathing suit, and when I sit on a hard chair, my tush feels . . . perkier? Although the sensation is hard to explain, it sure feels good!

More importantly, my fitness goals have been turned on their head. Thanks to the treadmill portion of Orangetheory, I've cut a full minute off my mile time. In fact, on a six-mile run earlier this week, my average pace clocked in at 8:26. That's pretty good for me! Feeling more confident than I have in years, I officially bit the bullet and signed up for a half-marathon. Although I've toyed with the idea in the past, injuries have always gotten in the way. Because of OTF, I'm very much looking forward to running my first race.

Thanks to the welcoming and nonintimidating community I've found at OTF, I've learned that there's something powerful about testing your physical limits. Sure, I've lost 10 pounds, but it's not just about getting in a good sweat. Rather, it's about self-improvement and conquering goals, whether you're trying to beat your personal 2,000-meter row record or simply get back into jogging again. Have I met my official weight-loss goal yet? No, but Orangetheory gives me the confidence to keep on trying.

Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Murphy Moroney

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Sure, I Lost 10 Pounds Doing Orangetheory Fitness, but It's Not Always the Scale That Matters - POPSUGAR

Hoda Kotb fulfilled a lifelong dream on Friday: meeting Oprah Winfrey. The two shared the TV screen on NBC's Today Show this week in a moment that fans will not soon forget. Viewers shared in Kotb's excitement as Winfrey took the stage.

Winfrey is back in the press these days promoting her 2020 Visions Tour. Her visit to Today was perfectly timed, however, as Kotb and co-host Jenna Bush Hager are celebrating their first week on a new set, with a live studio audience.

That crowd cheered wildly as Winfrey walked out on the stage. She embraced Hager at the table, then paused for a meaningful smile at Kotb before they hugged as well. As she made her entrance she said: "It's happening! You manifested it!"

The three women took their seats, and Kotb was clearly fighting back tears of joy. She said she needed "a moment," adding: "do y'all feel like you need a moment?!" to the audience.

Winfrey and Hager then explained how Winfrey had come to be on the show. Hager had seen Winfrey at a previous stop on her Vision Tour last month and had asked her to be on the show. She admitted that one of the main reasons was to give her co-host a chance to meet a lifelong idol.

"Thank you. I can't tell you, Oprah, I feel like I've been in this business 100 years...you know when people say, like, 'You mean to much to me,' but they've never met you and I know maybe it does seems a little weird, but this is really one of those moments for me," Kotb said to Winfrey.

"I watched you over the years, I've watched you lift people up," Kotb continued. "There's only a couple people on the Earth who you want to emulate in our business. I watched you like, hold people's hearts in your hand, and I remember thinking, like, how does she do that? And you did it in such a way that was always so tender and real, and the fact that you're sitting here on this day is really kinda blowing my mind."

Winfrey's career and her larger-than-life screen presence has inspired many journalists and interviewers in recent years. She rose to national fame in the 1986 with her syndicated daytime talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was on for 25 years before it ended in 2011.

Winfrey's show changed the face of daytime TV and had a profound effect on interviews and media criticism in general. It also highlighted self-improvement, self-help and empowerment methods that got a huge response from fans. It was all the more powerful because Winfrey is an African-American woman, bringing much-needed representation to the industry.

Many acclaimed stars have since cited that show as a profound influence in their early lives. That includes Kotb, who said that she felt a rush of childhood excitement when Oprah arrived on set.

"I mean, I'm 55 or 56, nobody knows," she joked. "Who cares. But it doesn't matter. It just shows you like, the kid in you in still in there when you walk in the door."

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Watch 'Today' Co-Host Hoda Kotb Lose It After Meeting Hero Oprah Winfrey - PopCulture.com

UAE millionaires are the youngest among their global counterparts, shaping the way they view personal enrichment and how they invest their money, according to a new HSBC survey in seven countries.

In the global study of 1,000 high-net-worth people with between $1 million (Dh3.65m) and $5m of investable assets, UAE respondents had an average age of 35. This is younger than mainland China at 37 and significantly younger than the UK at 51 and the US at 61. The other locations surveyed were Canada, France, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Three quarters of the 100 UAE millionaires surveyed said self-improvement is extremely important to living an enriched life, the highest globally. About half (52 per cent) chose new adventures with family also the most globally compared to 37 per cent in China and 35 per cent in France.

More and more of UAEs high-net-worth people are shifting towards a broader view of enrichment where self-improvement, new experiences and mental well-being rate just as high, or higher, than wealth accumulation, said Abdulfattah Sharaf, the group general manager and chief executive of HSBC in the UAE. These new perspectives are also changing the way the affluent manage their finances and invest.

There are approximately 88,700 people living in the UAE with individual assets of $1m or more, according to a 2019 report from New World Wealth based in Johannesburg. High-net-worth people hold about half of the $925bn in personal wealth in the Emirates, the report found.

HSBCs study found that of the UAE respondents who had average investible assets of $1.8m 40 per cent ran their own businesses, 30 per cent held senior executive positions and 20 per cent worked in professional services.

More than half (56 per cent) said establishing a legacy is an important source of enrichment. Eighty-one per cent said passing on values is the most important factor in their personal legacy, the second highest globally after France (86 per cent). Passing on assets was important for 56 per cent of UAE respondents and passing on skills for 54 per cent.

To capitalise on the studys findings on self-improvement and adventure, HSBC introduced Jade, a bank account that includes access to a range of bespoke luxury experiences, in addition to wealth management. Its Enrich List includes a voyage to Titanics wreck site off the coast of Canada, crying therapy in Japan and star gazing in Omans Wahiba Desert.

Updated: February 6, 2020 05:05 PM

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UAE millionaires are the youngest in the world - The National

In 2015, California decluttering and anti-burnout coach Jessica Louie was a Marie Kondo super fan. The anti-clutter gurus KonMari method of serenity through tidying had changed her life. Kondos influence was so profound that Louie completed a KonMari consultant certification course to share Kondos wisdom with her fellow pharmacists and other people overwhelmed by the stresses of modern life.

But there was a problem. When Louie examined her finances through Kondos lens, her mountain of graduate school-incurred debt failed to spark joy. Inspired by the life-changing simplicity of the KonMari method, Louie wondered if Japanese culture might offer similar wisdom for saving money. Thats how she discovered the financial approach of Kakeibo. With it, the debt steadily eroded.

We paid off almost $300,000 of debt from our graduate programs, Louie says. After her personal success with Kakeibo, she incorporated it into her anti-burnout coaching practice. I went debt free on it and have used it ever since with my clients.

Like the KonMari method, the 116-year-old Japanese financial approach of Kakeibo connects common domestic tasks (tidying for KonMari; budgeting for Kakeibo) with profound changes to mood and emotion. Pronounced Kah-keh-boh and translated to household financial ledger, Kakeibo (sometimes written as Kakebo) is a simple approach to household finances that teaches people to be more intentional about their spending. It doesnt require an app or spreadsheet; in fact, it must be done by hand. Kakeibos creator, trailblazing Japanese female journalist Motoko Hani, believed people need financial stability to achieve happiness. So, she created a clever and incredibly simple mix of budgeting and journaling that fosters emotional awareness about money and instills the value of delayed gratification.

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Kakeibo is a ledger system designed to track spending and make users aware of how theyre using money. The Kakeibo financial approach asks four simple questions:

In his 2018 book Kakeibo: The Japanese Art of Saving Money, author Fumiko Chiba illustrates the four questions like parts of a propeller. In practice, each of the simple questions flows into each other. You have money coming in, a goal for how much youd like to save, and money going out. Once you improve whats going out, more money is available and you can save more. But since there will inevitably be setbacks or things you overlook in a cycle, you stay mindful of spending and continue to look for ways to improve.

Kakeibo is about mindfulness. It asks its users to be conscious of what theyre spending money on. At the start of each month, you write down fixed income and expenses (rent, food, and so forth). Weekly, you record purchases and divide them into four pillars, or categories: survival, culture, optional, and extra (or unexpected). Sorting purchases into pillars gives a clear understanding of where your money is going and whether your use of money is advancing your savings goal. And it sets the stage for the reflection of asking how you can improve your spending habits to service that goal better. With your purchases recorded and categorized, you can see that splurging on Seamless five times a week set you back and improve by cooking more meals at home.

Youre definitely going to have some missteps, Louie says. Everyone has that. I had that as well. And then we write it down. You just reflect on it and ask, why did I do that? What was the feeling I had at that time?

No one attains perfect financial discipline overnight. Louie says Kakeibos call for regular reflection and self-improvement facilitates the learning process.

Sometimes my clients have to buy something in order to learn why they have that habit in their life, she says. Are they using it to cope or just have that burst of dopamine when they purchased it? Sometimes, when they get the item, they never even open the box.

The physical act of writing on paper is key to Kakeibo. This makes sense: studies have shown that writing leads to deeper understanding of information because it forces us to slow down and process what were learning instead of recording it without thought. Without this intentionality, the Kakeibo doesnt work.

Kakeibos a simple system. But its simplicity can lead to profound changes in spending habits. Tracking spending with the Kakeibo template makes you accountable for everything you purchase. Considering whether something is optional or needed for survival can be a persuasive reason for sticking to a shopping list instead of, say, hopping on Amazon to buy a few essentials and ending up with $200 worth of items in your cart. The resulting purchases often sport a Marie Kondo-friendly inclination towards quality over quantity.

The more money you save with Kakeibo, the higher quality of item you will invest in, Louie says. So its quality over quantity, which is very similar to Marie Kondo. If you are looking at what sparks joy in your life, youre investing in quality items that will last for years to come.

Of course, the Kakeibo method takes time to set. When I work with a lot of my clients, the first few weeks we work together, usually their Kakeibo tracking sheet is full and theres probably about 20, 25 lines, Louie says. As we continue working together, it gets down to maybe three or four lines.

With its spending categories and weekly calls for self-assessment, Kakeibo encourages people to be mindful of how theyre using money. Financial therapist and Financial Wellness Advocate for Prudential Amanda Clayman says that regular reflection on money could be a valuable change for many Americans.

We have a bias toward busy-ness in American culture where we are affirmed and praised for like the busier and crazier we are, she says. And because of that, activities of reflection do not feel productive.

Many spend casually and without consideration out of convenience. Knowing weve frittered away on food weve forgotten weve eaten alone can often be enough to change lazy habits.

A lot of people have a practice of tracking their spending, Clayman says. And while thats really lovely for bringing more consciousness to the moment, unless they also have a complementary practice of reviewing and then thinking about how they want to use that information moving forward, then theyre really only sort of doing half of the exercise.

Reflecting on spending shows how quickly the joys of mindless consumption disappear and leave us short on cash and surrounded by clutter.

A lot of times, in the moment we just want momentary gratification around a purchase but we dont actually want to have the thing that were buying, Clayman says.

Clayman noted that Kakeibo is rooted in culture. The Japanese rely on cash far more than Americans and the methods spending plans are geared far more towards the simple subtraction and addition involved with the exchange of physical rather than the complex variables of credit cards and banking fees.

Having a clear and intentional understanding of financial goals can grant those goals more perceived value, which strengthens commitment to delayed gratification. Americans generally prefer their gratification to be instant, which leads to out-of-control spending, regret and, in nearly all cases, fails to spark joy.

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Having access to performance data can help employees gain deeper understanding of their strengths and areas to work on something especially important for development teams, who are under increasing pressure to innovate faster, create services to keep up with customer demands and fight off their business competitors. Awareness of output is crucial to increasing the speed of innovation; having concrete data allows teams to gain this understanding of their work, steps they can take to self-improve and, ultimately, accelerate the innovation process. So why arent more companies empowering their IT teams with this kind of data?

Advances in modern technology have enabled us to become masters at measuring our behaviour. We are obsessed with self-analytics, from smartwatches that record how many steps weve taken in a day, to our phones monitoring how long weve spent on certain apps, we now have constant access to data we can use to improve who we are and the way we live our lives. In fact, we now produce a mind-boggling 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. Why is it then that that were not able to gain the same level of understanding of our performance in the workplace?

For large enterprises, where the mainframe is the backbone, an intuitive interface is critical. Newer developers may have never seen a green-screen environment before. They will have different expectations, as will more experienced developers, since theyve all been exposed to modern, user-friendly operating systems. As such, a modern IDE and analysis tools, can help developers of all backgrounds and experience levels work confidently and speedily on the mainframe. Sometimes it is easier to continue to work with the familiar, with muscle memory likely leading developers to work on autopilot. However, with access to performance data, correlated with developer behaviour, teams will be able make evidence-based decisions that improve the speed and quality of their output. As they become more aware of how the ways they work make a difference, so they are enabled to change and measure the impact of that change just like when they use a Fitbit to improve physical and mental health.

Armed with this Fitbit for developers, teams will have a clear idea of how theyre doing at work, the areas they perform well in, what could be improved and how changes in behaviour impact output. The measurements also provide evidence that they are getting better, giving a sense of individual achievement that translates to the successes of the team, inspiring a more creative landscape to drive innovation forward.

The way todays digital-savvy developers prefer to be taught about new methods and concepts has changed and moved on from the old, read the manual approach. Developers are now accustomed to hopping onto YouTube for video tutorials in their personal lives, for everything from cooking to DIY, they no longer want desk-based, textbook learning opportunities. As mainframe-reliant companies drive forward millennial recruitment plans, they need to provide this modern, Google/YouTube model for training too.

Online training curriculums can offer tailored, role-based modules for developers, while simultaneously providing data on individual tools usage. Having transparency of data allows teams to understand how changes to behaviour or tooling can benefit their performance and inspire them to adapt to be more effective individually and organisationally.

The data gleaned from new, online curriculums doesnt just benefit development teams. When understanding tool usage, theres also the added bonus for businesses that they will have access to metrics showing how effective the training has been and if investments in new tooling are paying off. This is hugely beneficial to the wider educational programme, as it enables an organisation to use data to constantly re-assess their teaching methods and measure adoption and usage of new tools that have been implemented.

After developers complete training, IT leaders can consult the data theyve produced to gain an understanding of the areas developers are thriving in, where they may need extra help, what new products theyve started using and what the business impact is. These metrics provide IT teams with knowledge on how effective a tool or a training course is, so they can then report back to the wider business to guide future decision-making.

Then, as is the standard expectation when data is collected, businesses are able to carry out further analytics to assess the impact on industry-standard measures such as quality, velocity and efficiency. This can be done both at a team and organisational level to show how the mainframe community is doing as a whole.

Across all industries, its no longer a case of big beats small; now fast beats slow. Businesses need to innovate faster while also improving quality and efficiency to keep up, and empowering development teams to embrace new ways of working and measure the positive impact it has on their output is crucial. Organisations should be considering how data and machine learning can help mainframe software development and delivery teams with this, enabling them to better understand their current performance levels, where this can be enhanced with new tooling or processes and the learning programmes on offer to help them on the road to self-improvement.

Dr Elizabeth Maxwell, EMEA Mainframe Technical Director, Compuware

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Supercharging mainframe innovation by measuring developer performance data - ITProPortal

EA has announced its plans to develop a new Sims sequel, and the obsolete MMO The Sims Onlinewill have a big impact on it. Considering the complex history of The Sims 4 is is never obvious what EA plans to do with the franchise in the future.

Seven years have passed since the last sequel was released, and while there have been clues in EA job listings about a new extension, nothing was definite until now. In an investors meeting last week, the companys executive Andrew Wilson was asked whether developer Maxis intends to relaunch an online sequel of The Sims remanding MMO The Sims Online, which was discontinued after it named it EA-Land back in 2008.

As per the transcript from fansite Sims Community, Wilson described that The Sims as a new generation, and suggested that a new game would merge features of The Sims Onlines social behaviors with the more classical virtual dollhouse elements.

What he said, in fact, was an almost unintelligible flow of marketing demagogy, but it is obvious that he was talking about a new product that would either be The Sims Online 2 or, most probably, The Sims 5.

As Maxis continues to think about The Sims for a new generation cross-platforms and a cloud of a neighborhood world, you should imagine while we will always stay true to our inspiration, escape, creation, self-improvement, motivations that this notion of social interactions and competition like the kind of things that were actually present in The Sims Online many, many years ago that they will start to become a part of The Sims experience in the years to come, Wilson said.

We are very excited. This is a game that really doesnt have any competition in its category for delivering and fulfilling these motivations for players, and we think of the tremendous growth opportunities for us for many, many years to come.

We should mention the fact that the use of new generation doesnt have anything to do with the next-generation consoles, but it is an allusion to The Sims series and new players.

Paula is an outstanding reporter for Henri Le Chat Noir, always finding new and interesting topics to bring to the portal. She mostly crafts Science and Technology news articles, covering everything one needs to know about those niches. Paula studied at Concordia University.

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The Sims 5 is Probably Being Developed - Henri Le Chat Noir

E-commerce giant Amazon is globally hiring thousands upon thousands of people 36,305, to be exact and more than 300 of them are in Australia.

The tech company is hiring across at least 50 countries, with nearly 23,000 of the vacancies in the US, 2,420 from India, and roughly 1,400 apiece from Britain, Canada, and Germany, according to analysis by Thinknum.

Most of the jobs are in software development (10,441 of them) and nearly 2,500 in non-technical project, program and product management roles.

There are more than 2,000 jobs each in operations, IT and support engineering as well as technical project management roles.

Several of the job categories are technical, operations, business or logistics-related, such as data science or hardware development but Amazon is also hiring for 1,634 human resources personnel and 494 designers, too.

The company also needs 407 customer service operators, 380 writers, content creators and managers, and 89 audio, video and photography producers.

Amazon has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The 330 advertised jobs, most of which are with cloud provider Amazon Web Services, are spread across these cities.

Youll find most of the Australian roles (254) in Sydney. They range from business and merchant development to account management, but operations, IT and support engineering employees are in greatest demand (60 roles).

Fifty-five Amazon jobs are in Melbourne, with 25 of the roles seeking solutions architects, where candidates will need experience in data and cloud computing.

There are 21 positions open in Brisbane, with more than half of them advertising for solutions architects.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is bullish about India and has flagged many areas of growth there.

He visited the country in mid-January and sat with the country head of Amazon India for a fireside chat in front of a summit of small- and medium-sized businesses.

During it, he made a prediction.

I predict that the 21st-century is going to be the Indian century, Bezos said.

The dynamism, energy everywhere I go here, people are interested in self-improvement, growth. This country has something special. This is going to be the Indian century.

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Ending something is hard. Its one thing to chart an early course, but having a firm enough grasp on the wheel to steer the ship into a final harbor takes a special skill. With that in mind, the series finales of The Good Place and BoJack Horseman feel like small miracles. While each show had its minor stumbles, both managed to stick the landing in a very important way: They felt earned and they felt right. Weve gotten to know these characters over the years, and the way that their arcs were wrapped up felt natural. A little sad, yes, but fitting. It is becoming increasingly common for out-of-character behavior to serve plot points in the name of surprise and being subversive, but writers and showrunners should look to these two finales as a gold standard in character arcs and storytelling.

The Good Place has had a bold message since Episode 1: People are at the very least trying to be good. Yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but The Good Place argued that when given the right tools and the right environment, people will usually bend towards self-improvement. In lesser hands, this could have ended up being a maudlin mess of platitudes. However, The Good Place usually found the balance somewhere in the dot over the "i" in Jeremy Bearimy.

Warning: Spoilers within for the series finales ofThe Good PlaceandBoJack Horseman.

With something as high concept as The Good Place, it made sense that it ran out of steam for a lot of the final season. Separating Chidi from the core group felt like a misstep and a few of the fixes on their quest to make the Good Place more accessible were a little too convenient. That being said, the way that the show handled where the main characters ended up was pretty flawless and showed what they had learned. Truly, the real Good Place genuinely was the friendsthey made along the way. The Good Place wasnt even the final stop for this crew, who realized that an endless lifetime (deathtime?) in paradise wasnt paradise at all. The undercurrent of sadness that all things must eventually end is what makes things so wonderful while theyre happening, so they fixed the fatal flaw of their version of heaven by giving you the option to leave when youre ready. Whats beyond the Good Place isnt clear, but how each character rises up to meet that beyond is a triumph.

For Michael and Janet, they got to taste the humanity that had always been out of reach for them. Our favorite former demon got to go to earth as an actual man and live out the banal but wonderful mortalityhe had always craved. Janet, the best not-a-girl that anyone could ask for, got to feel feelings (her weird romance with Jason was sweet to the end) while also ensuring that humanity would get their best shot at making it to the best possible version of the afterlife. Considering that their stories began with them working for the Bad Place, this is a rather remarkable end.

The four humans from the original experiment also ended exactly as they should have, but in rather unexpected ways. Jason is the obvious choice for being the first to choose to leave the Good Place and rejoin the universe beyond, with his short attention span and often short-sighted goals. However, he wants to see Janet one last time, so he ends up waiting around in the final forest by the doorway to whatever is beyond the Good Place for a literal age, just being quiet like the monk he once pretended to be. For Tahani, she reconciles with her parents and finds true purpose as a neighborhood architect, two things that eluded her on Earth. Chidi finds love with Eleanor and finally learns how to be decisive after ruining his mortal life with his inability to make even the simplest choice. He knows when its time to leave, and thats when he finds the time to read Dan Brown. Hes lived a thousand good lifetimes with Eleanor, and he is truly content.

While The Good Place is definitely an ensemble, Eleanor has always been at the center of it, so it makes sense that she is the last to leave and the one who has the hardest time saying goodbye. A self-proclaimed Arizona trash bag, Eleanor is a perfect example of being a product of your environment, which makes her desire to change and improve even more powerful. Eleanor was a self-interested loner as a human, but she was given the chance to save herself through education and relationships. Everyone has different types of companionship that theyre looking for, but no one is meant to be truly alone. Eleanor may have talked herself into believing that she preferred things that way, but when she realizes what the alternative is, she decides that trying is worth it. That being unselfish is worth it. When she makes the leap into the unknown, she has loved well and been loved well, and who could hope for more? There were no easy answers at the end of The Good Place, but everyone got where they needed and deserved to be.

BoJack Horseman, while quite a bit darker than a sunny supernatural sitcom, has a similar ethos: Its worth it to try. Yes, you will fail, because of your own flaws and because the sh*t the world hurls at you, but you can still do the right thing. The right thing doesnt always (and doesnt usually) mean the happiest outcome and can even bring boatloads of pain, but that doesnt make it less worthwhile. The arcs in BoJack are a little less tidy than The Good Place, but it was always that kind of show. We see Diane find out who she really is through a lot of self-reflection and self-loathing, but the woman at the end of the series has found a little peace. She may not be the serious writer that she set out to be, but adolescent mystery novels have value too, and Diane knows that now. Princess Carolyn has always felt the pullbetween building a career and having a family, and in the end, she gets both. Its certainly more complicated and exhausting than she anticipated, but she makes it work. And Todd, sweet Todd, lets go of his familial expectations and accepts that not everyones version of success in relationships and career ambition is the same. Hell always be a little offbeat, and thats fine.

And then theres BoJack. BoJack is a complicated figure because, while he is our protagonist and therefore someone whose success we somewhat root for, he has done awful things. Awful things. This isnt a morally gray anti-hero who ultimately does the right thing when the stakes are highest. At his core, hes a malignant narcissist who preys on vulnerable women and for years refuses to accept consequences. BoJack tries, BoJack fails, BoJack pays lip service to change, rinse, repeat.

In the penultimate episode of the series, BoJack is drowning in his old swimming pool after breaking in and ODing. His seemingly dying mind is coping with the trauma by having a macabre dinner and show with the significant people in his life who have died, leading viewers to think that BoJacks end really will be in the ground. But that would have been an easy out for the character. In death, BoJack never would have actually faced consequences for his actions. Serving time for the B&E (but really for... a lot of things) is the only way it could have ended for him.

While hes on leave from prison to attend Princess Carolyns wedding, BoJack tells Todd that hes worried about relapsing after he leaves the confined routine of jail. Todd tells him, both matter-of-factly and with compassion, Then youll get sober again. The point of Bojack Horseman is the inevitability of falling short. But that doesnt mean you shouldnt try. Consequences will come the likelihood of Bojack reconciling with Hollyhock is slim and his relationships with Todd and Diane will never be as close as they once were but thats life. You can still strive towards being a better you.

There are certain deals that creators make with their consumers, and maybe the most important one is satisfaction if they stick around. This doesnt mean that everyone gets a fairytale ending or fan-service is delivered at every turn. Giving the fans exactly what they seem to want is oftentimes the wrong answer. But a character arc that makes narrative sense in the universe of the story is one of the greatest things that media can deliver. It doesnt have to be happy, it just needs to feel true.

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The Good Place, BoJack Horseman, and the perfect character arc - SYFY WIRE