StreetGames sessions to be held in Thanet

Thanet is among three StreetGames organisations in Kent receiving 40,000 from the Home Office to use sport to deter young people from getting involved in crime and gangs.

The cash, for use with the Doorstep Sport scheme, will be split between Changing Minds Kent, Olympia Boxing and Sport On Your Doorstep in Thanet, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Chatham and Swale.

StreetGames organisations literally take sport to the doorstep of young people to make it as easy as possible for them to take part.

The aim is to engage marginalised youth who often miss out due to issues such as lack of money, transport and positive role models.

Doorstep Sport follows the 5 rights sport delivered at the right place, at the right time, in the right style, at the right price, and with the right leader or coach.

Its projects for youth crime prevention, called Sport 4 Good, follow ten principles that research shows are effective at reducing youth crime.

These include rewarding activities and personal development opportunities

The Home Office investment comes via the recently formed Kent Violence Reduction Unit, which is a partnership between the police, councils, health service providers and other key agencies to deliver a reduction in violence the county.

It was created in 2019 after the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner was awarded 1.16million from the Home Office. The Government then announced Kent would receive a further 1.16million to fund the Violence Reduction Unit in 2020/21.

Colin Rouse, from Changing Minds Kent, which will deliver the scheme in Thanet, said: To have tailored support from StreetGames and to be able to network with other like- minded organisations across Kent about project design, delivery and evaluation is so valuable when it comes to Sport 4 Good projects.

Its reassuring to know were not alone when trying to improve lives through sport.

James Gregory, from StreetGames, said: Were very grateful that the Kent Violence Reduction Unit and the Home Office recognise that quality-assured Doorstep Sport provision can be part of the solution to youth crime and gangs prevention.

But this work cant be done in isolation. So its key that we link up with other partner agencies like schools and social services, so we can be as effective as possible at improving young lives through sport by supporting young people to be healthier, safer and more successful.

James was formerly the lead on Thanets Sport 4 NRG scheme, which was a successful diversionary programme managed and delivered by TDC between 2005 and 2018.

Sport 4 NRG also used Doorstep Sport to keep young people active, occupied, off the streets and out of trouble. Due to capacity and budget restraints, the programme has been on hold over the last year but the aim is to relaunch it as an umbrella Doorstep Sport programme.

Other Thanet organisations delivering community sport to young people can be a are part of the programme, meaning it will be run by the community, for the community.

The Doorstep Sport programme launches during half-term, October 26-30.

For more details on the programme contact Colin Rouse at Changing Minds Kent at colin.rouse@changingmindskent.co.uk.

Newington Centre MUGA, Ramsgate: Street Football, 14+, Monday, 7pm-8.30pm

Newington Community Centre, Ramsgate: Boxing Fitness, 14+, Monday, 7pm- 8.30pm

Margate FC: Street Football, Thursday, 14+, 5pm-6.30pm

Man in 70s suffers serious injuries during reported assault in Margate

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Thanet shares 40000 StreetGames award to help keep young people out of gangs - The Isle of Thanet News

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Mason Advisory, independent IT consultancy, has been featured in the Great Place to Work In Technology 2020 report announced this morning.

Based at MediaCityUK in Salford, the company placed 9th in the small companies list (between 20 and 50 employees) confirming that employees feel Mason Advisory is a great workplace.

The report is compiled by Great Place to Work, an organisational consultancy working with businesses to become great workplaces, and reviews insights, workplace culture and people practices among employers in the technology sector. The methodology behind the rankings is one of the most rigorous and highly regarded in the UK and the report analyses recruitment, retention, growth, upskilling and training, and diversity and inclusivity. It bases the results on the opinion of employees, as staff feedback makes up the results of the Trust Index to ensure the full workforce is included in the survey.

Mason Advisory is continually investing in and implementing improvements in workplace culture, employee wellbeing, and career development. During the pandemic, it has continued to operate effectively and flexibly with staff working remotely, but with the choice of coming into the office should they need to, and within strict safety guidelines. This recognition confirms that employees at Mason Advisory feel a strong sense of trust, fairness and camaraderie.

Steve Watmough, Mason Advisory CEO, says:Weve had to be agile, adapt to new working conditions and acknowledge the impact these changes will have on our team, both inside and outside the working day, while maintaining the same high quality of work delivered for our clients. Were so proud to have received this recognition and its a morale booster for our whole workforce under the current circumstances. Our employees are the heart of our business and we appreciate their commitment, enthusiasm and sheer hard work its impressive to see how they have thrived while working from home and been able to continue their professional and personal development.

2020 has had plenty of highs and lows for us as a company but this award will stand us in good stead and gives us the confidence that our team is happy with our working practices and company culture. Thank you to all our employees for helping us to build a great workplace. Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place to Work UK, says: Especially during these times of crisis and uncertainty, its incredible to see the number of organisations within UKs tech space that have prioritised building a positive employee experience.

In this, our third year of recognising UKs Best Workplaces in Tech, weve seen many organisations find innovative and creative solutions in continuing to drive their great workplace culture remotely. We hope that by highlighting our Tech list recipients, other employers will be encouraged to put their people strategy at the heart of their business and continue to implement policies, practices and programmes that sustain an impactful and consistently great employee experience for all.

With offices at MediaCityUK, Salford, and London, Mason Advisory provides IT consultancy and advisory services, solving complex business challenges through the intelligent use of IT resources including IT strategy and transformation, sourcing, architecture, cybersecurity and IT delivery. It operates in sectors such as finance and banking, health, insurance, emergency services, education, retail, government, not for profit, and transport.

Earlier this year, Mason Advisory was also listed in the Financial Times Leading Management Consultancies 2020 report.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Francesca Gaffey .

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Mason Advisory officially named one of the UK's Best Places to Work in Technology - Bdaily

Popular public speaker and entrepreneur, Ires Alliston, brings together 9 Superstar Expert Coaches for an All-In-One success coaching experience in the Speed Coaching Virtual Event

Ires Alliston founded the Ires Alliston International with the primary goal of developing the next generation of business leaders and coaches from all walks of life. In a similar vein, Ires Alliston has put together a coaching event featuring 9 coaches and speakers that have demonstrated their expertise across different industries, with over 50 years of combined experience in sales, marketing, personal and business development. The virtual event is scheduled to hold on Saturday, November 7, 2020, from 10 AM EST to 1 PM EST.

The importance of coaching and mentorship on the road to success cannot be overemphasized. Getting coaches that know their onions and deliver effective and practicable tips can be a daunting task, considering the number of so-called experts in different parts of the world. However, Ires Alliston seems to have found an antidote with the Speed Coaching Event.

The event is designed for all categories of individuals and professionals, including coaches, consultants, service-based providers, and people who want to improve their business and personal life. The event is particularly unique offering speed coaching with top coaches and consultants who share their ultimate business strategies in 15-minute increments. The participating coaches are experts in different fields, including coaching success, transition, lifestyle, mindset, story branding, health, nutrition, and a host of others.

Speakers at the event include Ires Alliston, a global Business Consultant, author, and coach known for working with small business owners and entrepreneurs to scale their online coaching business. Other coaches to speak at the event are Mark Gai, Storyteller Authority, Tedx Speaker, and Entrepreneur, Tia Watson, Personal and Professional, Development Coach and Speaker, Courtney Gale, Success Business Coach, and Mentor, Speaker, and Entrepreneur, and Denise Wanamaker, Transition Coach, and Mentor, Speaker and Entrepreneur. Speed Coaching Event will also feature Tommy Pichardo, Master Transformational Coach, Author, Speaker and Entrepreneur, Rhaiza Gutierrez, Mindset Coach, and Mentor, Speaker and Business Owner, Connor Tinglum, Health Success Coach and Mentor, Nutritionist, Speaker and Entrepreneur, and Pernell Murphy, Lifestyle Specialist, Speaker, and Media Personality.

The Speed Coaching Event will cover 9 different topics, including Scaling Online Businesses, Magnetic Business Storytelling, Living A Powerful Purpose, Next-Level Coaching, and Creating Business Sovereignty. Other topics are Unlocking Optimal Health, 20/4 I.F. Lifestyle, Simplifying Lifestyle, and Amplifying Health.

For more information about Ires Allistons Speed Coaching Event and how to register for the life-changing event, please visit -http://speedcoachingevent.com/and YouTube.

Media Contact Company Name: Ires Alliston International Contact Person: Ires Alliston Email: Send Email Phone: 407-777-2849 Country: United States Website: http://speedcoachingevent.com/

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Ires Alliston To Grace The Spotlight As She Hosts The Forthcoming Speed Coaching Event - Press Release - Digital Journal

A fast-growing UK startup is quietly making strides in the promising field of quantum photonics. Cambridge-based company Nu Quantum is building devices that can emit and detect quantum particles of light, called single photons. With a freshly secured 2.1 million ($2.71 million) seed investment, these devices could one day underpin sophisticated quantum photonic systems, for applications ranging from quantum communications to quantum computing.

The company is developing high-performance light-emitting and light-detecting components, which operate at the single-photon level and at ambient temperature, and is building a business based on the combination of quantum optics, semiconductor photonics, and information theory, spun out of the University of Cambridge after eight years of research at the Cavendish Laboratory.

"Any quantum photonic system will start with a source of single photons, and end with a detector of single photons," Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, the CEO of Nu Quantum, tells ZDNet. "These technologies are different things, but we are bringing them together as two ends of a system. Being able to controllably do that is our main focus."

SEE: Hiring Kit: Computer Hardware Engineer (TechRepublic Premium)

As Palacios-Berraquero stresses, even generating single quantum particles of light is very technically demanding.

In fact, even the few quantum computers that exist today, which were designed by companies such as Google and IBM, rely on the quantum states of matter, rather than light. In other words, the superconducting qubits that can be found in those tech giants' devices rely on electrons, not photons.

Yet the superconducting qubits found in current quantum computers are, famously, very unstable. The devices have to operate in temperatures colder than those found in deep space to function, because thermal vibrations can cause qubits to fall from their quantum state. On top of impracticality, this also means that it is a huge challenge to scale up the number of qubits in the computer.

A photonic quantum computer could have huge advantages over its matter-based counterpart. Photons are much less prone to interact with their environment, which means they can retain their quantum state for much longer and over long distances. A photonic quantum computer could, in theory, operate at room temperature and as a result, scale up much faster.

The whole challenge comes from creating the first quantum photon, explains Palacios-Berraquero. "Being able to emit one photon at a time is a ground-breaking achievement. In fact, it has become the Holy Grail of quantum optics."

"But I worked on generating single photons for my PhD. That's the IP I brought to the table."

Carmen Palacios-Berraquero and the Nu Quantum team just secured a 2.1 million ($2.71 million) seed investment.

Combined with improved technologies in the fields of nanoscale semi-conductor fabrication, Palacios-Berraquero and her team set off to crack the single-photon generation problem.

Nu Quantum's products come in the form of two little boxes: the first one generates the single photons that can be used to build quantum systems for various applications, and the other measures the quantum signals emitted by the first one. The technology, maintains the startup CEO, is bringing quantum one step closer to commercialization and adoption.

"Between the source and the detector of single photons, many things can happen, from the simplest to the most complex," explains Palacios-Berraquero. "The most complex one being a photonic quantum computer, in which you have thousands of photons on one side and thousands of detectors on the other. And in the middle, of course, you have gates, and entanglement, and and, and and. But that's the most complex example."

A photonic quantum computer is still a very long-term ambition of the startup CEO. A simpler application, which Nu Quantum is already working on delivering commercially with the UK's National Physical Laboratory, is quantum random number generation a technology that can significantly boost the security of cryptographic keys that secure data.

The keys that are currently used to encrypt the data exchanged between two parties are generated thanks to classical algorithms. Classical computing is deterministic: a given input will always produce the same output, meaning that complete randomness is fundamentally impossible. As a result, classical algorithms are predictable to an extent. In cryptography, this means that security keys can be cracked fairly easily, given sufficient computing power.

Not so much with quantum. A fundamental property of quantum photons is that they behave randomly: for example, if a single photon is sent down a path that separates in two ways, there is no way of knowing deterministically which way the particle will choose to go through.

SEE: What is the quantum internet? Everything you need to know about the weird future of quantum networks

The technology that Nu Quantum is developing with the National Physical Laboratory, therefore, consists of a source of single photons, two detectors, and a two-way path linking the three devices. "If we say the right detector is a 1, and the left detector is a 0, you end up with a string of numbers that's totally random," says Palacios-Berraquero. "The more random, the more unpredictable the key is, and the more secure the encryption."

Nu Quantum is now focusing on commercializing quantum random number generation, but the objective is to build up systems that are increasingly complex as the technology improves. Palacios-Berraquero expects that in four or five years, the company will be able to start focusing on the next step.

One day, she hopes, Nu Quantum's devices could be used to connect quantum devices in a quantum internet a decade-long project contemplated by scientists in the US, the EU, and China, which would tap the laws of quantum mechanics to almost literally teleport some quantum information from one quantum device to the next. Doing so is likely to require single photons to be generated and distributed between senders and receivers, because of the light particles' capacity to travel longer distances.

In the shorter term, the startup will be focusing on investing the seed money it has just raised. On the radar, is a brand-new lab and headquarters in Cambridge, and tripling the size of the team with a recruitment drive for scientists, product team members and business functions.

Read the rest here:

Quantum computing: Photon startup lights up the future of computers and cryptography - ZDNet

In a bid to accelerate this countrys efforts in quantum computing, 24 Canadian hardware and software companies specializing in the field are launching an association this week to help their work get commercialized.

Called Quantum Industry Canada, the group says they represent Canadas most commercial-ready technologies, covering applications in quantum computing, sensing, communications, and quantum-safe cryptography.

The group includes Burnaby, B.C., manufacturer D-Wave Systems, Vancouver software developer 1Qbit, Torontos photonic quantum computer maker Xanadu Quantum Technologies, the Canadian division of software maker Zapata Computing, Waterloo, Ont.,-based ISARA which makes quantum-safe solutions and others.

The quantum opportunity has been brewing for many years, association co-chair Michele Mosca of the University of Waterloos Institute for Quantum Computing and the co-founder of two quantum startups, said in an interview, explaining why the new group is starting now. Canadas been a global leader at building up the global opportunity, the science, the workforce, and we didnt want this chance to pass. Weve got over 24 innovative companies, and we wanted to work together to make these companies a commercial success globally.

Its also important to get Canada known as a leader in quantum-related products and services, he added. This will help assure a strong domestic quantum industry as we enter the final stages of quantum readiness.

And while quantum computing is a fundamental new tool, Mosca said, its also important for Canadian organizations to start planning for a quantum computing future, even if the real business value isnt obvious. We dont know exactly when youll get the real business advantage you want to be ready for when quantum computers can give you an advantage.

Adib Ghubril, research director at Toronto-based Info-Tech Research Group, said in an interview creation of such a group is needed. When you want to foster innovation you want to gain critical mass, a certain number of people working in different disciplines it will help motivate them, even maybe compete.

Researchers from startups and even giants like Google, Microsoft, Honeywell and IBM have been throwing billions at creating quantum computers. So are countries, especially China, but also Australia, the U.K., Germany and Switzerland. Many big-name firms are touting projects with experimental equipment, or hybrid hardware that does accelerated computations but dont meet the standard definition of a quantum computer.

True quantum computers may be a decade off, some suggest. Ghubril thinks were 15 years from what he calls reliable, effective quantum computing. Still, last December IDC predicted that by 2023, one-quarter of the Fortune Global 500 will gain a competitive advantage from emerging quantum computing solutions.

Among the recent signposts:

Briefly, quantum computers take the theory of quantum mechanics to change the world of traditional computation of bits represented by zeros and ones. Instead, a bit can be a zero or a one. In a quantum computer, such basic elements are called qubits. With their expected ability to do astonishing fast computations, quantum computers may be able to help pharmaceutical companies create new drugs and nation-states to break encryption protecting government secrets.

Companies are taking different approaches. D-Wave uses a quantum annealing process to make machines it says are suited to solving real-world computing problems today. Xanadu uses what Mosca calls a more circuit-type computing architecture. Theres certainly the potential that some of the nearer-term technologies will offer businesses advantage, especially as they scale.

We know the road towards a full-fledged quantum computer is long. But there are amazing milestones in that direction.

Ghubril says Canada is in the leading pack of countries working on quantum computing. The momentum out of China is enormous, he said, but it looks like the country will focus on using quantum for telecommunications and not business solutions.

From his point of view companies are taking two approaches to quantum computers. Some, like D-Wave, are trying to use quantum ideas to optimize solving modelling problems. The problem is not every problem is an optimization problem, he said. Other companies are trying for the Grand Poobah the real (quantum) computer. So the IBMs of the world are going for the gusto. They want the real deal. They want to solve the material chemistry and biosynthesis and so on. Theyve gone big, but by doing so theyve gone slower. You cant do much on the IBM platform. You can learn a lot, but you cant do much. You can do more on a D-Wave, but you can only do one thing.

Ghburil encourages companies to dabble in the emerging technology.

Thats Infotechs recommendation: Just learn about it. Join a forum, open an account, try a few things. Nobody is going to gain a (financial) competitive advantage. Its a learning advantage.

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Canadian quantum computing firms partner to spread the technology - IT World Canada

The Dutch and the Finnish are doing their part in shedding the dystopian sci-fi rep that AI gets usually. These European nations often show up on the top when it comes to initiatives that take the human aspect seriously. Now they are at it again. Amsterdam and Helsinki are making moves to make sure that transparency of AI applications is established. Not only that but these cities want their citizens to play an active role going forward. In what can be a more sci-fi sounding announcement, quantum computing industry leader DWave opens up their tech for business applications making it the first to do so. There is more to news, thanks to Google and find out why in this weeks top news brought to you by Analytics India Magazine.

VMware and NVIDIA are coming together to offer an end-to-end enterprise platform for AI along with a new architecture for data center, cloud and edge; services that use NVIDIAs DPUs. We are partnering with NVIDIA to bring AI to every enterprise; a true democratization of one of the most powerful technologies, said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware.

The full stack of AI software available on the NVIDIA NGCTM hub will be integrated into VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Tanzu. This in turn will help accelerate AI adoption across the industru and allows enterprises to deploy AI-ready infrastructure across the data centers, cloud and edge.

On Thursday, Googles CEO Sundar Pichai announced that they would be sparing $1 billion for enabling high quality journalism. In a blog post penned by Pichai, underlined Googles mission to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful. Googles News Showcase features the editorial curation of award-winning newsrooms to give readers more insight on the stories that matter, and in the process, helps publishers develop deeper relationships with their audiences. Google has already signed partnerships for News Showcase with nearly 200 leading publications across Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the U.K. and Australia and will soon be expanding to India, Belgium and the Netherlands.

On Tuesday, D-Wave Systems, the Canadian quantum computing company announced the general availability of its next-gen quantum computing platform that flaunt new hardware, software, and tools to enable and accelerate the delivery of in-production quantum computing applications. The company stated that the platform is available in the Leap quantum cloud service and includes the Advantage quantum system, with more than 5000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity. In addition to this, there is an expanded hybrid solver service that can run problems with up to one million variables. Together, these services enables users to scale to address real-world problems with enabling businesses to run real-time quantum applications for the first time.

The PyTorch has announced that developers can leverage its libraries on Cloud TPUs. The XLA library, SAID pYtoRCH, has reached general availability (GA) on Google Cloud and supports a broad set of entry points for developers. It has a fast-growing community of researchers from MIT, Salesforce Research, Allen AI and elsewhere who train a wide range of models accelerated with Cloud TPUs and Cloud TPU Pods.

According to PyTorch, the aim of this project was to make it as easy as possible for the PyTorch community to leverage the high performance capabilities that Cloud TPUs offer while maintaining the dynamic PyTorch user experience. To enable this workflow, the team created PyTorch / XLA, a package that lets PyTorch connect to Cloud TPUs and use TPU cores as devices.

Github announced that the code scanning option, CodeQL is now generally available to all developers. With this new option developers get prompts It scans code as its created and surfaces actionable security reviews within pull requests and other GitHub experiences you use everyday, automating security as a part of your workflow. This helps ensure vulnerabilities never make it to production in the first place.Code scanning is powered by CodeQLthe worlds most powerful code analysis engine and will enable developers to use the 2,000+ CodeQL queries created by GitHub and the community, or create custom queries to easily find and prevent new security concerns.

No two palms are alike. Thats the idea behind Amazon One, a new service by the e commerce giant which allows customers to pay with their palm. Contactless payments were all the rage this pandemic and Amazon wants to step up their technology at one of their stores. All you need is a credit card, your mobile number, and of course, your palm. Once youre signed up, you can use your palm to enter, identify, and pay where Amazon One is available. Governments around the world started to ease the restrictions for public spaces like malls and stadiums and services like Amazon One might see a huge rise in demand because touching surfaces is so 2019!

On Monday, Amsterdam and Helsinki launched AI registries to detail how the respective governments use algorithms to deliver services. AI Register is a window into the artificial intelligence systems used by these cities through the register, citizens can get acquainted with the quick overviews of the citys artificial intelligence systems or examine their more detailed information based on your own interests. They can also give feedback and thus participate in building human-centred AI.

I have a master's degree in Robotics and I write about machine learning advancements. email:ram.sagar@analyticsindiamag.com

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Google's Billion Dollar News, Commercial Quantum Computers And More In This Week's Top News - Analytics India Magazine

Oct. 5, 2020 The Invited Talks for SC20 represent the breadth, depth and future outlook of technology and its societal and scientific impact. HPC has always played a critical role in advancing breakthroughs in weather and climate research. This years invited talks extend this further to data driven approaches, including biodiversity, geoscience, and quantum computing. Our speakers will also touch on responsible application of HPC and new technological developments to highlight the impact of this potent and versatile technology on a wide range of applications.

Hear these illustrious speakers during SC20 Invited Talks, TuesdayThursday, November 1719.

Lorena Barba(George Washington University) will explore the need for trustworthy computational evidence through transparency and reproducibility. With the explosion of new computational models for vital research, including COVID-19, applications that are of such importance to society highlight the requirement of building trustworthy computational models. Emphasizing transparency and reproducibility have helped us build more trust in computational findings. How should we adapt our practices for reproducibility to achieve unimpeachable provenance, and reach full accountability of scientific evidence produced via computation?

Shekhar Borkar(Qualcomm Inc.) will speak on the future of computing in the so-called post Moores law era. While speculations about the end of Moores law have created some level of fear in the community, this ending may not be coming as soon as we think. This talk will revisit the historic predictions of the end, and discuss promising opportunities and innovations that may further Moores law and continue to deliver unprecedented performance for years to come.

Dalia A. Conde(University of Southern Denmark) will offer a presentation on fighting the extinction crisis with data. With biodiversity loss identified by the World Economic Forum as one of humanitys greatest challenges, computational methods are urgently needed to secure a healthier planet. We must design and implement effective species conservation strategies, which rely on vast and disparate volumes of data, from genetics and habitat to legislation and human interaction. This talk will introduce the Species Knowledge Index initiative, which aims to map, quantify, analyze, and disseminate open information on animal species to policy makers and conservationists around the globe.

Tom Conte(Georgia Tech) will examine HPC after Moores law. Whether Moores law has ended, is about to end, or will never end, the slowing of the semiconductor innovation curve has left the industry looking for alternatives. Different approaches, beyond quantum or neuromorphic computing, may disrupt current algorithms and software development. This talk will preview the road ahead, and suggest some exciting new technologies on the horizon.

Marissa Giustina(Google LLC) will share the challenges and recent discoveries in the development of Googles Quantum computer, from both the hardware and quantum-information perspectives. This prototype hardware holds promise as a platform for tackling problems that have been impossible to address with existing HPC systems. The talk will include recent technological developments, as well as some perspective for the future of quantum computing.

Patrick Heimbach(The University of Texas at Austin) will discuss the need for advanced computing to help solve the global ocean state estimation problem. Because of the challenge of observing the full-depth global ocean circulation in its spatial detail, numerical simulations play an essential role in quantifying patterns of climate variability and change. New methods that are being developed at the interface of predictive data science remain underutilized in ocean climate modeling. These methods face considerable practical hurdles in the context of HPC, but will be indispensable for advancing simulation-based contributions to real world problems.

Simon Knowles(Graphcore) will discuss the reinvention of accelerated computing for artificial intelligence. As HPC changes in response to the needs of the growing user community, AI can harness enormous quantities of processing power even as we move towards power-limited computing. To balance these needs, the intelligence processor (IPU) architecture is able to capture learning processes and offer massive heterogeneous parallelism. This ground-up reinvention of accelerated computing will show considerable results for real applications.

Ronald P. Luijten(Data Motion Architecture and Consulting GmbH) will offer a presentation on data-centric architecture of a weather and climate accelerator. Using a co-design approach, a non-Von-Neumann accelerator targeting weather and climate situations was developed in tandem with the application code to optimize memory bandwidth. This also led to the filing of a patent for a novel CGRA (Course Grain Reconfigurable Array) layout that reflects grid points in the physical world. The talk will include benchmarks achieved in the project, and a discussion of next steps.

Catherine (Katie) Schuman(Oak Ridge National Laboratory) will introduce us to the future of AI and HPC, in the form of neuromorphic computing and neural accelerators. These two new types of computing technologies offer significant advantages over traditional approaches, including considerably increased energy efficiency and accelerated neural network-style computing. This talk will illustrate the fundamental computing concepts involved in these new hardware developments, and highlight some initial performance results.

Compton Tucker(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) will speak on satellite tree enumeration outside of forests at the Fifty Centimeter Scale. Non-forest trees, which grow isolated outside of forests, and are not well documented, nevertheless play a crucial role for biodiversity, carbon storage, food resources, and shelter for humans & animals. This talk will detail the use of HPC and machine learning to enumerate isolated trees globally, to identify localized areas of degradation, and quantify the role of isolated trees in the global carbon cycle.

Cliff Young(Google LLC) will entertain the question of whether we can build a virtuous cycle between machine learning and HPC. While machine learning draws on many HPC components, the two areas are diverging in precision and programming models. However, it may be possible to construct a positive feedback loop between them. The Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) could provide opportunities to unite these fields to solve common problems through parallelization, mixed precision, and new algorithms.

Source: Melyssa Fratkin, SC20 Communications Chair

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SC20 Invited Speakers Tackle Challenges for the Earth, Its Inhabitants, and Our Security Using 'More Than HPC' - HPCwire

Akshaye Khanna says he respects Osho and his teachings despite his father Vinod Khanna leaving the family behind for the commune.

Countless celebrities from all of the world joined the controversial Rajneesh Movement in the 1970s, becoming sworn followers of the cult and disciples of their leader, Osho or Bhagwan Rajneesh. Those on the list included The Beatles, Parveen Babi, Mahesh Bhatt and late actor Vinod Khanna. Tuesday marks Vinods 74th birth anniversary.

Vinod became a disciple of Osho in 1975, moving to Oregon and leaving his family--a wife and two kids behind in Mumbai. Vinods elder son, Akshaye Khannna was just a toddler at the time and unable to process why his father had left them. It was only when he turned 15 or 16 that he realised who was Osho and the Rajneeshis.

Talking about Oshos influence over his fathers life, Akshaye said in an interview to Mid-Day in January, (The influence) To not only leave his family, but to take sanyaas (renunciation). Sanyaas means giving up your life in totality family is [only] a part of it. Its a life-changing decision, which he felt that he needed to take at the time. As a five-year-old, it was impossible [for me] to understand it. I can understand it now.

In the sense that something must have moved him so deeply inside, that he felt that that kind of decision was worth it for him. Especially, when you have everything in life. And when life doesnt look as though theres much more that you can have. A very basic fault-line/ earthquake has to occur within oneself to make that decision. But also stick by it. One can make the decision and say this doesnt suit me lets go back, he said.

ALSOWATCH | Gandhi Jayanti: Films to relive the Mahatmas journey

Akshaye added that unlike the common belief that Vinod returned after growing disenchanted with the movement, his father came back after the US government disbanded the commune. t was just the fact that the commune was disbanded, destroyed, and everybody had to find their own way. Thats when he came back. Otherwise I dont think he wouldve ever come back, he said.

Even though Vinod left the family for Osho, Akshaye still had respect for the spiritual leader. I dont know if sanyaas is something that I could do. But that doesnt mean I cant enjoy his discourses, respect his intellect, oratory skills, and his way of thinking. I have deep respect for him, he said.

Also read:Bigg Boss 14: Sara Gurpal calls Sidharth Shukla Punjab ka jeeja, leaves him blushing at the thought of Shehnaaz Gill

Vinod died on April 27, 2017 at the age of 70 after battling cancer. He made his Bollywood debut in 1968 film Mann Ka Meet, which was produced by Sunil Dutt, who was reportedly struck by Vinods good looks. He was noticed for his portrayal of Shyam in Gulzars 1971 film Mere Apne, where he stood out as a disillusioned young man.

He got his first break as a hero in Hum Tum Aur Woh (1971). A great many films followed including hits such as Elaan and Mera Gaon Mera Desh. He made his political debut in 1997 with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and served as a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayees government.

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What Akshaye Khanna said about Vinod Khanna leaving family for Osho: Something must have moved him... - Hindustan Times

It turns out not everybody believes the Proud Boys are white supremacists, including a prominent Black professor at a historically Black university.

Wilfred Reilly, associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University, said Wednesday that the Proud Boys arent white supremacists, describing the right-wing groups beliefs as Western chauvinist and noting that their international chairman, Enrique Tarrio, is Black.

Gotta say: the Proud Boys arent white supremacists, tweeted Mr. Reilly, author of Hate Crime Hoax.

The Proud Boys came under the microscope after President Trump refused during Tuesdays presidential debate to condemn them as white supremacists, saying, Proud Boys stand back and stand by, prompting accusations that he was supporting virulent racists.

Mr. Reilly said that about 10% to 20% of Proud Boys activists are people of color, a diverse racial composition that is extremely well-known in law enforcement, based on his research.

Enrique Tarrio, their overall leader, is a Black Cuban dude. The Proud Boys explicitly say theyre not racist, Mr. Reilly told The Washington Times. They are an openly right-leaning group and theyll openly fight you they dont deny any of this but saying theyre White supremacist: If youre talking about a group of people more than 10% people of color and headed by an Afro-Latino guy, that doesnt make sense.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer accused Mr. Trump of refusing to condemn white supremacy, tweeting, He told white supremacists to stand back and stand by. President Trump is a national disgrace, and Americans will not stand for it.

Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden told reporters Wednesday: My message to the Proud Boys and every other White supremacist group is: cease and desist. Thats not who we are.

White House spokeswoman Alysa Farah pushed back on the criticism, saying, I dont think theres anything to clarify. Hes told them to stand back.

Black Trump supporter Melissa Tate also challenged the white supremacist label, posting a video in which she and Beverly Beatty said that the Proud Boys helped provide security for them at a Christian prayer event.

STOP THE LIES, tweeted Ms. Tate, who has 440,700 followers. Proud Boys are NOT White Supremacist. They are Christian men many of them hispanic & some black.

Added Michael Burkes, who has 236,700 followers on his Trumps Black Grandson account: The Proud Boys arent the ones calling me a Coon so theyre alright with me.

Proud Boys, founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Mr. McInnes has sued to have the designation removed.

Were a drinking club with a patriot problem, Mr. Tarrio told CNN at a Sept. 26 rally in Portland. As Proud Boys, I think our main objective is to defend the West.

After the debate, Mr. Tarrio insisted the group was not racist, saying that Mr. Trump did an excellent job and was asked a VERY pointed question. The question was in reference to WHITE SUPREMACYwhich we are not.

Proud Boys, which describes its members as Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, have clashed repeatedly with Antifa in Portland.

The Oregon Justice Resource Center filed a lawsuit last week against the Proud Boys, alleging that four counter-protesters were injured by Proud Boys activists wielding paint-ball guns and bear mace during an Aug. 22 melee in Portland.

The Proud Boys represent an unconventional strain of American right-wing extremism, said the Anti-Defamation League on its website. While the group can be described as violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic, its members represent a range of ethnic backgrounds, and its leaders vehemently protest any allegations of racism.

Mr. McInnes, who left the group in 2018, has been banned from most social-media platforms for his anti-Semitic statements, including a video called Ten Things I Hate About Jews, which he later changed to Ten Things I Hate About Israel.

Supporters of the Proud Boys include right-wing pundits Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, as well as former Republican consultant and convicted felon Roger Stone, whose 2019 sentence was later commuted by Mr. Trump.

During the Tuesday debate moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace, Mr. Trump was asked if he would be willing to tell white supremacists and militia groups to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, referring to the ongoing protests and rioting.

Sure, Im willing to, but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing, Mr. Trump said. Im willing to do anything. I want to see peace.

Mr. Wallace said, Then do it, sir. Mr. Trump said him to give me a name, and Mr. Biden said, Proud Boys.

Proud Boys stand back and stand by, Mr. Trump said. But Ill tell you what. Ill tell you what. Somebodys got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem.

He challenged Mr. Biden to condemn Antifa, to which Mr. Biden replied, Antifa is an idea, not an organization. Mr. Trump replied, Oh, youve got to be kidding.

Blexit founder Candace Owens asked why Mr. Biden was not asked to condemn Antifa, tweeting, Unbelievable. Every person in America knows these riots are being orchestrated by black lives matter and Antifa.

Chris Wallace asks the President to condemn white supremacists but did not think to ask Joe Biden to condemn Antifa or BLM, she added.

More here:

Wilfred Reilly insists 'Proud Boys aren't white supremacists' as Trump takes flak - Washington Times

When I was a police investigator for the Pennsylvania State Police, I found the job to be very like my work in my 10 years as a journalist.

The police officer and the news reporter both seek the truth. We both ask the following questions: Who, What, Where, When, How and, in my view the most important question, WHY. I found in both jobs it wasnt enough to know WHAT you were seeing, but WHY you were seeing it.

The Clearfield Municipal Authority was once thinking about building a massive public works project on Moose Creek Dam. Was it because Clearfield needed the water? Was it because authority members wanted to give friends and relatives rich contracts? Was it because the engineering firm designing the project practically ran the authority meetings? Maybe a little of each?

Why matters.

In police work, why is codified in law and in proof. Intent is key in the findings of guilt or innocence. Did the person do something intentionally, recklessly or carelessly?

When you are evaluating information, to get to facts, you need to know the why.

Kyle Rittenhouse is a 17 year old shooter from Antioch, Illinois, who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed with a loaded assault rifle. FACT. Why?

In order to commit five felonies and a misdemeanor, in my world, you have to TRY. Meaning? Youre doing SOMETHING on purpose. Have YOU committed five felonies? Why?

The Kenosha demonstrations were over the police shooting of an unarmed man, Jacob Blake. The protests were marked by daily peaceful protesting followed by confrontations with law enforcement and rioting at night.

Kyle Rittenhouse appears to have been responding to the protest as part of some number of armed militia members.

There exists a video clip of Rittenhouse, shown with members of a group earlier in the evening, getting bottles of water from a law enforcement officer in an armored vehicle. The officer thanks the armed men for their help, though they are clearly civilians armed civilians in violation of the citys 8 p.m. curfew.

We appreciate you guys, the officer says. We really do.

Lets say I was, just spitballing here, at a riot in Penn State some years ago and I was in riot gear and some kid is calling me a Nazi. And I look to my left and a BOY is carrying an assault rifle around. Hed have been on the ground so fast his eyes would have sparkled. But maybe my PSP training was of a higher caliber.

Your president, the day after the Rittenhouse shootings, said this:

That was an interesting situation, he said at a coronavirus task force briefing. He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like, and he fell, and then they very violently attacked him.

He was in very big trouble. He probably wouldve been killed, but its under investigation.

In defending a supporter of his, the president never mentioned that the boy had already shot and killed one unarmed person. Instead, he blamed left-wing political violence.

To me, a trained journalist AND a trained police officer, asking the question, Why? the problem here isnt that unarmed black people are confronting white guys with guns. Its that militia types are self-deputizing and acting illegally in a law enforcement capacity. The actions of these militia members are illegal, never mind the cynical thinking of arming yourself and going to a Black Lives Matter protest.

The president here BLAMES the VICTIMS.

Over on Fox, Tucker Carlson said this:

Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17 year olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?

Tucker does something clever here. He runs video of enraged protesters lighting something that looks like a piece of cloth on fire and throwing it over a chain link fence. Same clip, protesters are saying things like Kill the police back. For a Fox viewer, thats heady stuff. But it isnt shooting. Or looting.

Carlson is positing, blaming the local government here, that, to paraphrase, SOMEONE had to maintain order. The problem with Carlsons argument, emotional as it is, is that it is illegal for someone not the police to do so. To my reckoning, there are plenty of police in the streets in this instance.

Ann Coulter said this:

I want him (Rittenhouse) as my president.

She wants a 17 year old shooter to be president. When the president said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose one vote well Ann Coulter is actually calling for it. Thats madness.

The president cannot run on a Law & Order platform while he defends criminals on his side and condemns criminals on the other.

I suspect, and this is my opinion, that the militia groups here, just like in Charleston and other places, have gone there for hateful reasons and to engage, fully armed, against unarmed black people. Im saying you will find a racist attitude underlying these kinds of actions.

The president stokes this, inflames this, and defends this.

When white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, killing one and injuring 19 others, the president said there were Good people on both sides.

Trump cannot run on a law and order message when he is fomenting violent crime. Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter should be run off Fox for supporting violent criminals and any decent journalist should resign from Foxs news division because they are the sheeps clothing that the fox wears. They are the ones who give Fox a shred of credibility so their screeching opinion merchants at night can inflame their viewers to hatred. Thats my informed opinion.

Black people are protesting because they want justice.

Every one of these horrible videos I watch flies in the face of proper police training. You dont shoot people in the back. You dont shoot a guy you pulled over for DUI in the back as he runs away when you know who he is, you have his car, and hes been with you doing all your tests for 45 minutes. Flight, in itself, we were taught at the state police academy, is not an escalation of force.

You do not shoot a man in the back seven times, point blank range, holding him by his t-shirt, in front of his three kids in the back seat of a car when you cant identify the crime the man committed and later claim he had a knife in his car. Anyone have a knife in their car? In your pocket? That man was not holding a knife. He was not brandishing a knife. He was not even facing the officer. If he was coming at him, brandishing a knife, and if the officer commands him to stop and he doesnt Different story. But those arent the facts.

You dont need to defund the police. You need to have a higher standard of training, like I got with the PSP, uniform, across the country. And thats expensive. You gotta fund that. I lived there at the academy for six months. I studied the constitution and where police powers come from. I studied the FBI use of force continuum and its application to real world situations.

When Rodney King was surrounded by seven jackals beating him senselessly on the ground with riot batons, I could think of no police training video I had ever seen where that was LEGAL.

When Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyds neck, it was illegal.

And when a heavily armed boy kills in the streets, its illegal.

If the Kenosha police had the PSP training I had? We wouldnt be here.

If the president and the right wing media chamber didnt support such criminals and instead condemned such killings, we wouldnt be here.

Trump cannot have it both ways. It is an affront to my sense of decency that he can defend racists and murderers. It is galling to run on a law and order message while pouring gas on the fire.

There will be a trial for Kyle Rittenhouse, who was illegally in possession of a dangerous weapon, who intentionally loaded the weapon, crossed state lines, went to a protest, aimed at and killed a man shooting him five times. When he was pursued, he killed another unarmed man.

Kyle Rittenhouse may well have racist motivations. That might help explain the why. A trial will tell. But even if he did not have such motivations, he still brought an assault rifle to a protest. He chose to. Intentionally. Hes a BOY. A stupid BOY. Raised, Im betting and this is a guess, in hate.

Hes certainly a killer.

And THIS is Donald Trumps America. This is what your president SUPPORTS and defends. He FEEDS hate.

Law and order. Yeah, right.

q q q

More here:

Fact vs. opinion in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse: Part 2 - Clearfield Progress