Despite acknowledged promise: Fear, uncertainty and doubt surround AI adoption

Executives worldwide placed artificial intelligence as a top strategic priority for 2021, yet plans have slowed or been curtailed. Juniper Networks recently released the report, "AI is set to accelerate...is your organization ready?" which addresses this very curious dilemma: Developers, organizations (95%) and consumers know the benefits, welcome and are excited about the potential. But how can companies accelerate their adoption?

© Provided by TechRepublic Image: iStock/metamorworks

Today's AI

Today, AI's slow rollout includes the automation of daily tasks, such as chatbots for customer service, bank reconciliations and smart workflows for IT trouble ticket management. The aforementioned 95% of organizations believe their companies would benefit from embedding AI into daily operations, products and services. Curiously though, only 6% of C-level leaders reported adoption of AI-powered solutions across their organizations today.


"I wasn't all that surprised by the findings because the challenges are real and ones that come up in my discussions with other CIOs on the topic," said Sharon Mandell, senior vice president and CIO of Juniper Networks. "There are always challenges with new technology, but these concerns should not hold people back from experimenting, learning, moving forward and getting the real benefits that are there. Start by dipping your toes in the water and work to get comfortable before swimming into the deep end."

The top three challenges to embraceable AI adoption

Juniper found the gap lies within the following three challenges, ranked by respondents as the most prescient adoption inhibitors: AI-ready technology stacks, workforce readiness and AI governance.

Respondents were asked to rank developing company value-added AI models and data sets considered "the top technology-related challenge." Ingesting, processing and managing data to feed AI is their No. 1 tech challenge, Juniper's report stated. Financial commitment is essential "in robust cloud solutions and preparation of the right data for AI to use;" 39% of respondents said they're "likely to collect telemetry data to enhance AI to improve user experience, as well as ensure sensitive data is protected in the process." Thirty-four respondents said AI tool capabilities are the most critical to enable AI adoption.

Getting the workforce onboard: 73% of organizations struggle with the preparation and expansion of their workforce to integrate with AI systems. It's the highest priority for the company, C-level respondents reported, to hire people to develop AI capabilities within an organization than it is to train end-users to operate the tools themselves.

Under the right umbrella: 67% of respondents reported that AI has been identified as a priority by their organizations' leaders for a fall 2021 strategic plan, and 87% of executives agree that organizations have a responsibility to have governance and compliance policies in place to minimize negative impacts of AI, yet executives still ranked establishing AI governance, policies and procedures as one of their lowest priorities. A further 84% of executives agree cross-functional executive sponsorship and involvement is critical for AI to integrate into their products and services. Yet only 7% of executives said they haven't identified a company-wide AI leader to oversee AI strategy and governance. Seventy-four percent of respondents agree that employee satisfaction has increased since implementing AI solutions to assist in their operational tasks.

What AI there is, is very good

The organizations that are early AI adopters cite positive changes like operational efficiencies and enhanced user-experience. Juniper's research found companies that "adopted and harnessed AI are showing real and meaningful outcomes, providing optimism and excitement."

Further research found that as organizations scale their AI capabilities and integrate employees into solutions, user satisfaction steadily rises, and time saved allows employees to focus on value-added tasks that were previously unmanageable.
How to keep competitive

To keep competitive, the industry needs to "Adapt!" Mandell said. "Organizations have only just begun to understand the integration challenges and investment required for AI-ready technology stacks. Ultimately, they need the proper infrastructure as their base foundation for AI. Once they've built the proper base to ingest and process quality and unbiased data, they should focus on ensuring their workforce is armed with the proper skills and tools to support this AI wave. Finally, when it comes to AI adoption, governance, cross-functional and executive involvement are all critical to ensure that AI stays within the business' priorities."

AI's future in business

Looking forward, Mandell said, "While a lot of the fear around AI might still exist, it has the power to unlock our workforce, to enable businesses, to change the world. While there are some barriers to adoption, the optimism around the use of AI in organizations is palpable; AI in the enterprise is set to take off. With almost two-thirds of the organizational leadership surveyed noting that AI is a top priority for their 2021 strategic plans, we can not only expect to see more trials and deployments in the near future, but also watch as AI becomes essential to the business of tomorrow."

Methodology: Juniper surveyed 700 IT global decision makers who have direct involvement in their organization's AI and/or machine-learning plans or actual deployments to assess the attitudes, perceptions and concerns of the technology.

Where's the Beef? GOP Lawmakers Fume Over Meat Limits Biden Never Actually Suggested

Lindsey Ellefson 


There is no red meat ban — and never was one

Let's get one thing out of the way: President Joe Biden has not proposed a limit on individual American red meat consumption. No one in his administration has, either. That hasn't stopped Republican lawmakers and media figures from complaining about a fake red meat restriction and directing their anger at Biden.

Freshman representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorne raged online against Biden and the non-existent meat ban, as did Donald Trump Jr.

"Not only does Emperor Biden not want us to celebrate the 4th of July, now he doesn't want us to have a burger on that day either. Retweet if you're still doing both because this is America!" Cawthorne urged his Twitter followers, ginning up some outrage over a phony edict, then using it to game a little social engagement.

"I'm pretty sure I ate 4 pounds of red meat yesterday. That's going to be a hard NO from me," said Trump Jr., reacting to a graphic from Fox News.

CNN fact-checked this entire claim after it appears a handful of times on Fox News and on the Twitter feeds of actual Republican lawmakers, finding that the whole issue seems to be a piece published by the Daily Mail last week. That's right: The origin of this hamburger-based rumor isn't even American.

The article in question "baselessly connected Biden's climate proposals to an academic paper from 2020 that is not about Biden and says nothing about the government imposing dietary limits," according to CNN.

Again, there is no burger ban. There never was a burger ban.

Rick Santorum Slammed for Saying America Was Birthed From Nothing, There 'Isn't Much Native American Culture'CNN's Rick Santorum is being heavily criticized for insisting that the United States was built on a blank slate, ignoring the history and culture of the country's Indigenous people.© Alex Wong/Getty Images Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) speaks during a news conference on health care September 13, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Santorum, now a political commentator for CNN, is being criticized for for saying Americans birthed a nation from nothing and that there "isn't much Native American culture in American culture.”Santorum, the network's senior political commentator and a former GOP congressman, made the remarks during the student organization Young America's Foundation's Standing Up for Faith & Freedom conference last week."We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here," Santorum said. "I mean, yes we have Native Americans, but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture."He continued, "It was born of the people who came here pursuing religious liberty to practice their faith, to live as they ought to live and have the freedom to do so. Religious liberty. Those are the two bulwarks of America. Faith and freedom."Santorum added that while other countries have "changed over time," the United States hasn't evolved culturally since Christian settlers from Europe had to build America from nothing.The Pennsylvania Republican received swift backlash on social media, with many calling for him to be removed from CNN's lineup."Well then @CNN. Come get your nativist, revisionist, racist boy," author Roxane Gay tweeted.Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted: "Seriously is anyone surprised to hear this hot garbage coming from Rick Santorum?! Nothing was here?! No native American culture in American culture?! America hasn't changed?!"Seriously is any one surprised to hear this hot garbage coming from Rick Santorum?!Nothing was here?! No native American culture in American culture?! America hasn’t changed?!Ok @CNN ... ok! https://t.co/fGjJTf3u1m— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) April 26, 2021The Palmer Report directly addressed CNN, writing in a tweet: "Hey CNN do you agree with what your employee Rick Santorum said about Native Americans, or are you going to fire him?"Brian Sims, a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, wrote in a Twitter post that Santorum's comments were "RACIST TRASH.""There are countless reasons why Pennsylvania is ashamed of Rick Santorum," Sims wrote. "One of our most racist, xenophobic and bigoted exports, this Google stain deserves no attention and @CNN has to do the work of removing and apologizing for the amplification they give him."Meghan McCain, a co-host of ABC's The View and daughter of the late GOP senator John McCain, tweeted: "Rick Santorum has always been an absolute a**hole - this is so ignorant and dangerous. I was raised learning, respecting and appreciating Native American culture in Arizona, specifically Hopi and Navajo. So much so that a Navajo flutist and drummer performed at my dads funeral."Newsweek reached out to CNN for comment on the backlash to Santorum's remarks but did not receive a response before publication.Alexandra HutzlerNEWSWEEK 4/26/2021

Rick Santorum Slammed for Saying America Was Birthed From Nothing, There 'Isn't Much Native American Culture'

CNN's Rick Santorum is being heavily criticized for insisting that the United States was built on a blank slate, ignoring the history and culture of the country's Indigenous people.

© Alex Wong/Getty Images Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) speaks during a news conference on health care September 13, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Santorum, now a political commentator for CNN, is being criticized for for saying Americans birthed a nation from nothing and that there "isn't much Native American culture in American culture.”

Santorum, the network's senior political commentator and a former GOP congressman, made the remarks during the student organization Young America's Foundation's Standing Up for Faith & Freedom conference last week.

"We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here," Santorum said. "I mean, yes we have Native Americans, but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture."

He continued, "It was born of the people who came here pursuing religious liberty to practice their faith, to live as they ought to live and have the freedom to do so. Religious liberty. Those are the two bulwarks of America. Faith and freedom."

Santorum added that while other countries have "changed over time," the United States hasn't evolved culturally since Christian settlers from Europe had to build America from nothing.

The Pennsylvania Republican received swift backlash on social media, with many calling for him to be removed from CNN's lineup.

"Well then @CNN. Come get your nativist, revisionist, racist boy," author Roxane Gay tweeted.

Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted: "Seriously is anyone surprised to hear this hot garbage coming from Rick Santorum?! Nothing was here?! No native American culture in American culture?! America hasn't changed?!"

Seriously is any one surprised to hear this hot garbage coming from Rick Santorum?!

Nothing was here?! No native American culture in American culture?! America hasn’t changed?!

Ok @CNN ... ok! https://t.co/fGjJTf3u1m— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) April 26, 2021

The Palmer Report directly addressed CNN, writing in a tweet: "Hey CNN do you agree with what your employee Rick Santorum said about Native Americans, or are you going to fire him?"

Brian Sims, a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, wrote in a Twitter post that Santorum's comments were "RACIST TRASH."

"There are countless reasons why Pennsylvania is ashamed of Rick Santorum," Sims wrote. "One of our most racist, xenophobic and bigoted exports, this Google stain deserves no attention and @CNN has to do the work of removing and apologizing for the amplification they give him."

Meghan McCain, a co-host of ABC's The View and daughter of the late GOP senator John McCain, tweeted: "Rick Santorum has always been an absolute a**hole - this is so ignorant and dangerous. I was raised learning, respecting and appreciating Native American culture in Arizona, specifically Hopi and Navajo. So much so that a Navajo flutist and drummer performed at my dads funeral."

Newsweek reached out to CNN for comment on the backlash to Santorum's remarks but did not receive a response before publication.

Alexandra Hutzler

NEWSWEEK 4/26/2021

SANTORUM NEEDS A CIVICS REFRESHER 

SEE MY BLOG POST

Native America and the Evolution of Democracy

An interesting online text on Native Democracy and its impact on colonial America and thus the basis of the libertarian chants democratic that echo through out American history.

Every king hath his council, and that consists of all the

old and wise men of his nation. . . . [N]othing is under-

taken, be it war, peace, the selling of land or traffick,

without advising with them; and which is more, with the

young men also. . . . The kings . . . move by the breath

of their people. It is the Indian custom to deliberate. . . .

I have never seen more natural sagacity.

--William Penn to the

Society of Free Traders,

16 August 1683

WikiLeaks Fast Facts

CNN Editorial Research  3 hrs ago

Here's a look at WikiLeaks and the trial of Chelsea Manning.

© Jack Taylor/Getty Images LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 11: Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11, 2019 in London, England. After weeks of speculation Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by Scotland Yard Police Officers inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in Central London this morning. Ecuador's President, Lenin Moreno, withdrew Assange's Asylum after seven years citing repeated violations to international conventions. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)


Facts

WikiLeaks is purportedly an organization that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information through its website.


It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, activist, computer programmer and hacker.

Chelsea Manning (born Bradley Manning), a former Army intelligence analyst who provided WikiLeaks with classified documents, was convicted of violating the Espionage Act in 2013 and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Her sentence was later commuted by President Barack Obama.


Timeline

December 2007 - WikiLeaks posts the US Army manual for soldiers dealing with prisoners at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay.

March 2008 - WikiLeaks posts internal documents from the Church of Scientology.

September 2008 - WikiLeaks posts emails from the Yahoo email account of Sarah Palin.

November 2008 - WikiLeaks posts a list of names and addresses of people it claims belong to the far-right British National Party.

November 2009 - WikiLeaks posts what it claims are 500,000 messages sent during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

April 5, 2010 - A classified military video is posted by WikiLeaks. It shows a US Apache helicopter firing on and killing two journalists and a number of Iraqi civilians in 2007. The military claimed that the helicopter crew believed the targets were armed insurgents, not civilians.

May 2010 - The US military detains Manning for allegedly leaking US combat video, including the US helicopter gunship attack posted on WikiLeaks, and classified State Department records. Manning was turned in by Adrian Lamo, a former hacker, who Manning confided in about leaking the classified records.

July 6, 2010 - The military announces it has charged Manning with violating army regulations by transferring classified information to a personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system and of violating federal laws of governing the handling of classified information.

July 25, 2010 - WikiLeaks posts more than 90,000 classified documents relating to the Afghanistan war in what has been called the biggest leak since the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. The documents are divided into more than 100 categories and touch on everything from the hunt for Osama bin Laden to Afghan civilian deaths resulting from US military actions.

October 22, 2010 - WikiLeaks publishes nearly 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War, providing a new picture of how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, the role that Iran has played in supporting Iraqi militants and many accounts of abuse by Iraq's army and police.

November 28, 2010 - WikiLeaks begins publishing approximately 250,000 leaked State Department cables dating back to 1966. The site says the documents will be released "in stages over the next few months."

November 28, 2010 - The WikiLeaks website suffers an attack designed to make it unavailable to users. A Twitter user called Jester claims responsibility for the attack.

December 1, 2010 - Amazon removes WikiLeaks from its servers.

April 24, 2011 - Nearly 800 classified US military documents obtained by WikiLeaks reveal details about the alleged terrorist activities of al Qaeda operatives captured and housed in Guantanamo Bay.

September 2, 2011 - WikiLeaks releases its archive of more than 250,000 unredacted US diplomatic cables.

October 24, 2011 - WikiLeaks announces that it is temporarily halting publication to "aggressively fundraise." Assange states that a financial blockade by Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union has cut off 95% of WikiLeaks' revenue.

December 16, 2011 - Manning's Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing that will determine whether enough evidence exists to merit a court-martial, begins.

February 23, 2012 - Manning is formally charged with aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, transmitting national defense information and theft of public property or records.

February 26, 2012 - WikiLeaks begins releasing what it says are five million emails from the private intelligence company, Stratfor, starting with a company "glossary" that features unflattering descriptions of US government agencies. The authenticity of the documents can't be independently confirmed.

July 5, 2012 - WikiLeaks begins publishing more than 2.4 million emails from Syrian politicians, government ministries and companies dating back to 2006.

February 28, 2013 - Manning pleads guilty to some of the 22 charges against him, but not the most serious charge of aiding the enemy, which carries a life sentence.

June 3, 2013 - Manning's court-martial begins.

July 30, 2013 - Manning is acquitted of aiding the enemy, but found guilty on 20 other counts, including violations of the Espionage Act.

August 21, 2013 - A military judge sentences Manning to 35 years in prison.

August 22, 2013 - Through a statement read on NBC's Today show, Manning announces he wants to live life as a woman and wants to be known by his new name, Chelsea Manning. She later formally changes her name.

July 22, 2016 - WikiLeaks releases nearly 20,000 emails from Democratic National Committee staffers. The emails appear to show the committee favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the US presidential primary.

October 7, 2016 - More than 2,000 hacked emails from Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta are published by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks claims that it has more than 50,000 of Podesta's emails and pledges to continue releasing batches of documents during the weeks leading up to the election.

January 3, 2017 - During an interview on the Fox News Network, Assange says that Russia did not give WikiLeaks hacked emails.

January 12, 2017 - WikiLeaks tweets that Assange will agree to be extradited to the United States if Obama grants clemency to Manning.

January 17, 2017 - Obama commutes Manning's sentence, setting the stage for her to be released on May 17.

March 7, 2017 - WikiLeaks publishes what they say are thousands of internal CIA documents, including alleged discussions of a covert hacking program and the development of spy software targeting cellphones, smart TVs and computer systems in cars. In a statement, Assange says that the website published the documents as a warning about the risk of the proliferation of "cyber weapons." The documents are not independently authenticated.

April 20, 2017 - Authorities tell CNN that they are taking steps to seek the arrest of Assange, preparing criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder. The investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates back to 2010 but prosecutors struggled with the question of whether the First Amendment protected Assange. Now, they reportedly have found a way to proceed but offered no details on the nature of the charges they plan to file.

May 3, 2017 - During a Senate hearing, FBI Director James Comey refers to WikiLeaks as "intelligence porn," declaring that the site's disclosures are intended to damage the United States rather than educate the public.

May 17, 2017 - Manning is released from prison.

September 15, 2017 - Harvard Kennedy School withdraws an invitation to Manning to be a visiting fellow.

October 2017- CNN reports that in 2016 a Cambridge Analytica executive reached out to WikiLeaks requesting access to Clinton emails. Assange confirmed the exchange in a tweet, saying "I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks."

May 31, 2018 - The US Army Court of Criminal Appeals upholds Manning's 2013 court-martial conviction. Although Manning's sentence was commuted, her conviction under the Espionage Act, still stands.

March 5, 2019 - A federal judge denies Manning's effort to quash a subpoena and avoid testifying before a grand jury in Virginia. It is not publicly known what the grand jury in Virginia is investigating and what prosecutors' interest in Manning is.

March 8-May 9, 2019 - Manning spends 62 days in federal custody for refusing to testify about her disclosures to WikiLeaks. A group of Manning supporters called Chelsea Resists issues a statement claiming Manning is being kept in her cell for 22 hours a day, which they say constitutes solitary confinement and surmounts to "torture."

April 11, 2019 - Assange is arrested by the Metropolitan Police in London on an extradition warrant from the US Justice Department. He is charged with conspiracy to attempt to hack a computer in connection with the 2010 release of classified military info obtained via Manning. Assange's attorney says the indictment is troubling because of its implications for freedom of the press.

May 16, 2019 - Manning is again found in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury and returns to jail.

March 11, 2020 - Manning is hospitalized after attempting suicide.

March 12, 2020 - Federal District Court judge Anthony Trenga orders Manning to be released from jail after being held for 10 months.

January 4, 2021 - A British judge has rejects a US request to extradite Assange to America.

Supreme Court to take up right to carry gun for self-defence

SAME REASON WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS CLAIM THEY NEED THEIR GUNS FOR

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal to expand gun rights in the United States in a New York case over the right to carry a firearm in public for self-defence.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The case marks the court’s first foray into gun rights since Justice Amy Coney Barrett came on board in October, making a 6-3 conservative majority.

The justices said Monday that they will review a lower-court ruling that upheld New York’s restrictive gun permit law. The court's decision to take on the case follows mass shootings in recent weeks in Indiana, Georgia, Colorado and California and comes amid congressional efforts to tighten gun laws. President Joe Biden also has announced several executive actions to combat what he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment” of gun violence in America.

The case is especially significant during the coronavirus pandemic, said Eric Tirschwell, the legal director of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group backed by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “Gun violence has only worsened during the pandemic, and a ruling that opened the door to weakening our gun laws could make it even harder for cities and states to grapple with this public health crisis,” Tirschwell said.

The court had turned down review of the issue in June, before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

1968

New York is among eight states that limit who has the right to carry a weapon in public. The others are California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

In the rest of the country, gun owners have little trouble legally carrying their weapons when they go out.

Paul Clement, representing challengers to New York’s permit law, said the court should use the case to settle the issue once and for all. “Thus, the nation is split, with the Second Amendment alive and well in the vast middle of the nation, and those same rights disregarded near the coasts,” Clement wrote on behalf of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and two New York residents.

Calling on the court to reject the appeal, the state said its law promotes public safety and crime reduction and neither bans people from carrying guns nor allows everyone to do so.

1968

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that gun laws have made New York the “safest big state in the country” and that the “NRA-backed case is a massive threat to that security. Imagine someone carrying a gun through Times Square, onto the subway, or to a tailgate outside of a Bills game.”

Federal courts have largely upheld the permit limits. Last month, an 11-judge panel of the federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected a challenge to Hawaii’s permit regulations in an opinion written by a conservative judge, Jay Bybee.

“Our review of more than 700 years of English and American legal history reveals a strong theme: government has the power to regulate arms in the public square,” Bybee wrote in a 7-4 decision for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The issue of carrying a gun for self-defence has been seen for several years as the next major step for gun rights at the Supreme Court, following decisions in 2008 and 2010 that established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for self-defence.

In June, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, complained that rather than take on the constitutional issue, “the Court simply looks the other way.”

But Barrett has a more expansive view of gun rights than Ginsburg. She wrote a dissent in 2019, when she was a judge on the federal appeals court in Chicago, that argued that a conviction for a nonviolent felony — in this case, mail fraud — shouldn’t automatically disqualify someone from owning a gun.

She said that her colleagues in the majority were treating the Second Amendment as a “second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.”

Mark Sherman, The Associated Press

1969

Federal court refuses to end quarantine 

hotel rules, saying health order remains 

until full hearing in June

\

© Provided by National Post A man looks at his phone at a quarantine hotel near Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, on Feb. 24, 2021.


The Federal Court refused to order an immediate end to the federal government’s quarantine hotel rules, but agreed it is an issue needing close judicial scrutiny because of restrictions it places on travellers.

“A public health emergency, like the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, is in one sense simply another emergency. However, it must also be recognized that it is a type of situation that can inspire irrational fears and passions, which may in turn provoke a government to adopt excessive measures that trench unduly on the rights and freedoms of individuals,” the court said in its ruling.

“It is necessary, therefore, to subject government rationale for any emergency measures to a degree of scrutiny that is proportional to the risk that Charter rights may have been impaired by actions based on irrational fears rather than the careful weighing of competing interests based on the evidence.”

That examination will come in June, when a full trial is scheduled by the Federal Court to hear a number of challenges to the government’s health restrictions in response to COVID.

For now, the apparent necessity of unusual actions in the face of an unusual threat means the order will remain in force.

“Against this, however, lies the very real risk that some of these travellers will unknowingly bring into Canada a potentially deadly virus, or one of the newly-emerging, more transmissible and perhaps more dangerous variants of concern,” Judge William Pentney concluded.

“Any harm to the Applicants’ rights and freedoms from a temporary stay at a hotel is not a sufficient basis to suspend a significant public health measure that is based on the advice of scientific experts, and seeks to prevent or slow the spread of COVID-19 and its variants into Canada.

“This evidence amply demonstrates that the public interest lies in not suspending the challenged measures.”

A joint motion by nine people asked the court to suspend the emergency measure requiring travellers arriving in Canada by air to pre-book and pay for a three-day stay in a government-approved hotel and remain in quarantine there until a second COVID test confirms they are not carrying the novel coronavirus.

Canadians avoiding hotel quarantines for air travellers fuel taxi boom on U.S. border

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They argued the mandatory quarantine rules violate their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms because they are law-abiding people who can safely quarantine at home. Most of the nine left Canada before the rules were put in place.

In response, the government argued that having to change travel plans and incur added travel costs because of the rules is not enough to upend a public health measures responding to the emergence of new COVID-19 variants of concern. Suspending the rules would have a significant negative impact on public health “at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is already posing significant challenges in Canada, with tragic consequences for thousands of people.”

Many of the plaintiffs divide their time between a home in Canada and another in Mexico or Florida and object to the mandatory hotel stay for various reasons, from financial hardship, mental health, safety fears — and also an anti-testing objection.

The lead plaintiff in the appeal is Barbara Spencer, who moved from Ontario to Mexico after retiring in 2011. She wants to return to Canada to see her family, especially her first great-grandchild, and also to see her family doctor, court heard. She said she fears for her safety and does not feel comfortable at a mandated federal facility.

Reid Nehring, an Alberta resident, told court he doesn’t want the government to “insert a foreign object into my body under the guise of testing,” in his objection to the requirement of having a COVID test before arriving in Canada.

SOUNDS LIKE A UFO PHOBIA

Sabry Mohammad Belhouchet went to Algeria after the death of his father to tend to his father’s estate. He told court the fees of the mandatory hotel will create financial hardship on top of his travel and not working for three months while out of Ontario.

Michel Lafontaine, of Quebec, said he and his wife travelled south in response to the Canadian government’s dire warnings that the health care system might be overwhelmed during the pandemic. He complained the rules ignore that both he and his wife have been fully vaccinated while staying in Florida.

The nine plaintiffs are represented by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, a Calgary-based conservative legal group. 

THE Y SOUND  LIKE A FRONT FOR THE SOVERIGN INDIVIDUAL CULT

The organization reacted with disappointment their injunction wasn’t granted but were pleased the court recognized the risk of health restrictions breaching fundamental freedoms.

“The forced isolation of returning Canadian air travellers is arbitrary, unnecessary, and totalitarian. These quarantine hotels and restrictive measures are more consistent with a dictatorship than a free society,” Jay Cameron, the organization’s litigation director, said in a written statement.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys

 Freeze! New model to help protect ships from ice accretion

SKOLKOVO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (SKOLTECH)

Research News

Researchers from Skoltech (Russia) and their colleagues from SINTEF (Norway) have developed a mathematical model of freezing water droplets moving in cold air. This model is a part of a joint RFBR-supported Russian-Norway research project. The project is focused on predicting ice accretion on ships and other offshore structures operated in Arctic climate, which may interfere with their proper functioning and endanger crew members and cargo. The paper was published in the journal Energies.

Ships travel in cold northern waters under constant bombardment by tiny water droplets populating the chilly air. The droplets are expelled into the air at the impact of sea waves on the ship hull or other surfaces. When they reach the ship's substructure, these semi-frozen droplets can either bounce off or stick. The probability of the droplets' sticking to the wall depends on their freezing state, i.e., completely frozen droplets simply bounce off, while others lead to different scenarios. If too many of them stick, the structure accumulates ice, which can threaten its stability and cause surface erosion. There are models describing this process for aircraft and electrical power lines, but so far, there are no simulation tools that accurately describe ice accretion at sea and not require a lot of computational resources.

"The ice accretion process consists of a few important stages. First, the droplets are generated from sea wave impact at a variety of sizes and speed. Then, they fly towards the ship in the form of a sea spray cloud, while the distribution of droplet size, location and velocity in the cloud is unknown. Finally, at impact with a surface, droplets contribute to the ice accretion with certain efficiency. Some droplets do not add up to the ice layer, while others become a part of it. These processes are hardly studied and contain many unknown parameters, which makes numerical simulations difficult. At Skoltech, we develop a few special experimental setups to obtain the unknown parameters in the laboratory and at sea. Our experimental results become a part of a complex model of ice accretion process. We also contribute with models of some subprocesses of the icing", senior research scientist Svyatoslav Chugunov, a coauthor of the paper, says.

Iskander Akhatov, professor and director of the Skoltech Center for Design, Manufacturing and Materials, professor Dmitry Eskin, MSc graduate Doston Shayunusov and Svyatoslav Chugunov built just such a model of the cooling of a droplet, its partial solidification, and its further interaction with the solid wall surface.

The model consists of two parts: the first part simulates the droplet partial freezing after leaving the core liquid, and the second part simulates the interaction between the droplet and the solid wall. The authors of the paper note that the new model is simple and suitable only for an approximate analysis, but they intend to incorporate it into a more complex 3D simulation tool.

"This work is in the active stage right now. We are assembling an experimental setup to measure distribution of the droplets' location and size in the sea spray cloud from a ship. We would make additional efforts to measure droplets velocity while running the major experiments. These studies are in our plan of work for 2021," Dr. Chugunov says.

Once the project is completed, scientists expect to get an open-source numerical code for realistic simulations of wave impact on a ship, to simulate seawater droplets' propagation in cold air and their deposition onto ship surfaces.

"This numerical tool could be applied to different types of existing and future marine structures to predict ice accretion under variety of climatic conditions. For existing structures, the plan of risk mitigation for ice accretion events could be improved. For prospective developments, the shape and location of ship components may be altered to reduce the effects of ice formation on ship functioning," Chugunov notes.

We've been at it a long time

Hebrew University researchers unveil oldest evidence of human activity in African desert cave

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

Research News

 

Few sites in the world preserve a continuous archaeological record spanning millions of years. Wonderwerk Cave, located in South Africa's Kalahari Desert, is one of those rare sites. Meaning "miracle" in Afrikaans, Wonderwerk Cave has been identified as potentially the earliest cave occupation in the world and the site of some of the earliest indications of fire use and tool making among prehistoric humans.

New research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, led by a team of geologists and archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) and the University of Toronto, confirms the record-breaking date of this spectacular site. "We can now say with confidence that our human ancestors were making simple Oldowan stone tools inside the Wonderwerk Cave 1.8 million years ago. Wonderwerk is unique among ancient Oldowan sites, a tool-type first found 2.6 million years ago in East Africa, precisely because it is a cave and not an open-air occurrence," explained lead author Professor Ron Shaar at HU's Institute of Earth Sciences.

The team were able to successfully establish the shift from Oldowan tools (mainly sharp flakes and chopping tools) to early handaxes over 1 million years ago, and to date the deliberate use of fire by our prehistoric ancestors to 1 million years ago, in a layer deep inside the cave. The latter is a particularly significant because other examples of early fire use come from open-air sites where the possible role of wildfires cannot be excluded. Moreover, Wonderwerk contained a full array of fire remnants: burnt bone, sediment and tools as well as the presence of ash.

Dating cave deposits is one of the greatest challenges in paleo-anthropology, aka the study of human evolution. To overcome this challenge, the team analyzed a 2.5-meter thick sedimentary layer that contained stone tools, animal remains and fire remnants using two methods: paleomagnetism and burial dating. "We carefully removed hundreds of tiny sediment samples from the cave walls and measured their magnetic signal," described Shaar.

Magnetization occurred when clay particles, that entered the cave from outside, settled on the prehistoric cave floor, thereby preserving the direction of the earth's magnetic field at that time. "Our lab analysis showed that some of the samples were magnetized to the south instead of the north, which is the direction of today's magnetic field. Since the exact timing of these magnetic "reversals" is globally recognized, it gave us clues to the antiquity of the entire sequence of layers in the cave," added Shaar.

Prof. Ari Matmon, Director of HU's the Institute of Earth Sciences, relied on a secondary dating method to further confirm when the earliest "humans" may have occupied the site. "Quartz particles in sand have a built-in geological clock that starts ticking when they enter a cave. In our lab, we are able to measure the concentrations of specific isotopes in those particles and deduce how much time had passed since those grains of sand entered the cave," he explained.

The dating of prehistoric human activity at Wonderwerk Cave has far-reaching implications. The co-directors of the Wonderwerk Cave project, Prof. Michael Chazan at the University of Toronto and Liora Kolska Horwitz at HU's National Natural History Collections, explained that the findings at Wonderwerk "are an important step towards understanding the tempo of human evolution across the African continent. With a timescale firmly established for Wonderwerk Cave, we can continue studying the connection between human evolution and climate change, and the evolution of our early human ancestors' way of life."

On the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert, Wonderwerk Cave is also a place of great spiritual significance to local communities, attesting to the cave's cultural importance for both past and present peoples. The Wonderwerk Cave Research Project is committed to protecting the site and to working with neighboring towns to develop the educational and cultural potential of this unique place.

Photos, Credits and Article available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/103a60qIZCOi9zzRFUUzP376ZG4KHWvP_?usp=sharing

FOREVER CHEMICALS

Toxic fluorocarbons - Not just in ski waxes

These chemicals are omnipresent in the environment, a new Norwegian study shows

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in ski wax have been receiving a lot of attention recently, but waxes constitute only a limited part of the problem of the PFAS group of toxicants.

PFAS are a large group of man-made fluorocarbon toxicants, and you are most likely full of them. The toxic substances don't break down and instead accumulate, both in nature and in your body.

"Due to their extensive use, humans and animals all over the world are continuously exposed to PFAS," says Håkon Austad Langberg, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) who has studied several of them in the last few years.

PFAS are used in many different products beyond the fluorinated ski wax that ends up in the ground on ski slopes and on trails, including Teflon, firefighting foam, water- and grease-repellent paper and impregnated textile fabrics, among many others.

"There are thousands of different PFAS," says Langberg.

Numerous health problems can be traced to PFAS. The toxic substances are either proven or suspected to increase the risk of kidney and testicular cancer, damage to the liver, disrupted cholesterol levels, reduced fertility, hormonal disorders, negative effects on development in children and weakened immune systems.

Langberg's research has included investigating how PFAS from individual Norwegian sources behave in the environment.

"That is, where they end up, like in waterways or the seabed, how they're transported in the environment and how they're taken up into the food chain," he says.

We need to understand how various toxic substances behave in nature in order to assess their risks, give the right advice on food and drink that could be PFAS contaminated and to clean contaminated areas.

Langberg hunted for PFAS near large emission sources and found large quantities.

"I investigated Svalbard Airport and Bodø Airport, both of which are polluted due to the use of firefighting foam, and Lake Tyrifjord, which is polluted by a factory that produced paper products," he says.

Runoff from the airports that Langberg investigated flows into the sea. Marine fish and crabs near the airports had higher levels of PFAS than those found in other areas, but due to the water exchange in the ocean, the levels were limited.

Despite its name, Tyrifjord in Viken county is actually a lake, and toxic pollutants can therefore accumulate quite strongly there.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health stated last year that Norwegian women and children ingest too much PFAS. Fish is often the source of the toxicants. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has warned against eating fish and drinking water from fresh water sources near airports. The Authority warned in particular against eating fish from Lake Tyrifjord.

PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. None of the many thousands of these substances break down in nature. Well, that's not entirely true. Some of them do break down, but only into other PFAS variants which in turn do not degrade. PFAS that can be converted to non-degradable PFAS are called PFAS precursors.

Once these toxic substances are released into nature, for all practical purposes they will remain there permanently or until they are actively cleaned up.

"Scientists often call them 'forever chemicals,' says Langberg.

The properties of the substances, and thus their behaviour in the environment, change when PFAS precursors are converted to non-degradable PFAS. Many PFAS precursors become more water soluble when converted. More water-soluble substances are in turn often more available for uptake into organisms and can also be transported faster by water currents.

Since different PFAS are used in different products, it is possible to find out which emission source has polluted what.

"For example, different types of PFAS are used in firefighting foam than the ones used to make paper water- and grease repellent," Langberg says.

Many sources of PFAS contamination are due to local use, either of the toxicants directly or of products that contain them. The surrounding environment near these point sources has often been shown to contain high concentrations of the toxic pollutants in water, the soil and seabed, and in fish and other animals.

"Factories where PFAS is produced are among the most studied point sources, along with places where PFAS-containing firefighting foam is used, such as at airports," says Langberg.

People who drink water or eat plants, fish or other animals from such areas risk being exposed to significant levels of PFAS in addition to the continuous exposure that we all experience.

Langberg found particularly high PFAS levels in Lake Tyrifjord.

"By looking at the composition of the PFAS detected in Lake Tyrifjord, we concluded that a factory producing paper products was the source of the pollution in the lake," said Langberg.

The PFAS released into Lake Tyrifjord are not very water-soluble. The toxicants are located on the lake bottom and can thus be absorbed into the food chain over time.

"In Lake Tyrifjord, these PFAS precursors are a continuous source of poison in the food chain since they're ingested by bottom feeders that are later eaten by fish," Langberg says.

Fish usually ingest such compounds from the surrounding water, but in Lake Tyrifjord the water concentrations are low, and the uptake of the pollutants instead happens via the fish's diet.

In this way, the substances in the food chain are transferred and converted over time to the non-degradable PFAS that are detected in significant amounts in fish.

"The pollution in Lake Tyrifjord wouldn't have been detected if only water samples had been taken. That's why our sampling also needs to include the seabed and various animal species if we don't know the source of the PFAS pollution, or if PFAS with unknown behaviours have been released into the environment," says Langberg.

This is the first time the production of paper products has been identified as leading to significant local pollution. The research shows that PFAS quantities released into Lake Tyrifjord are very high.

Langberg believes the production of paper products is probably a large and overlooked source of pollution elsewhere as well.

Langberg's research illustrates the need to assess risk from chemicals in consumer goods, starting during production, in the use phase and after the product lifespan.

"The EU is focusing on this topic through the development of a 'Chemicals strategy for sustainability,' which is a good thing," says Langberg's supervisor Sarah Hale. She is a senior specialist at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute.

The results from Langberg's dissertation provide valuable information about contaminated areas. The new knowledge can be used later to identify sources of pollution, make risk assessments and assess remediation measures.

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The work is part of a larger project called "Reducing the negative effects of fluorinated substances on the environment and humans" which is funded by The Research Council of Norway via project 268258.

Source: Aasim M. Ali, Håkon A. Langberg, Sarah E. Hale, Roland Kallenborn, William F. Hartz, Åse-Karen Mortensen, Tomasz Maciej Ciesielski, Carrie A. McDonough, Bjørn Munro Jenssen and Gijs D. Breedveld. The fate of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in a marine food web influenced by land-based sources in the Norwegian Arctic. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EM00510J

 NEWS RELEASE 26-APR-2021

Ozone pollution in Germany falls thanks to lower nitrogen oxide emissions

INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES E.V. (IASS)

Research News

 

Summer is the ozone season: The harmful gas forms at ground level on hot, sunny days. In recent years, however, the rise in ozone levels over the summer months has not been as pronounced in Germany as it was previously. According to a new study, this is primarily due to a reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions. This trend can be observed across Germany's southwestern regions in particular, while Berlin lags behind.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are among the precursors of ground-level ozone, which can irritate the eyes, nose and throat and aggravate respiratory conditions. The emissions are primarily produced during combustion processes in engines and industrial facilities. "Traffic is the most significant source of nitrogen oxide emissions in urban centers. In recent years, emissions have fallen significantly, partly due to improved vehicle exhaust values", explains lead author Noelia Otero (IASS Potsdam/FU Berlin). Together with her colleagues, Otero wanted to learn more about the effect of falling NOx emissions on the formation of ground-level ozone.

The researchers used long-term measurements of hourly ozone concentrations in conjunction with measurements of nitrogen oxide concentrations gathered at stations across Germany to determine the relationship between temperature and ozone over the period 1999 to 2008 and 2009 to 2018. The researchers discovered that warm temperatures caused ozone concentrations to rise more in the first period than in the second. This demonstrates that a reduction in emissions positively affects the formation of ozone.

As an example, the researchers compared data from measuring stations located at a town square in Wörth am Rhein (Rhineland-Palatinate) and on Nansenstraße in Berlin-Neukölln. In Wörth, nitrogen oxide concentrations declined by 35 % between the first and second periods, while in Berlin they sank by just 7.5 % in the second period. In Wörth, ozone concentrations sank in response to rising temperatures compared to the first period; this effect could not be observed in Berlin, however.

According to the researchers, these changes in ozone concentrations are likely to be driven not only by NOx emissions, but also by another ozone precursor: volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which derive from a range of sources, including traffic, industry, solvents and even vegetation. "In the absence of long-term data on volatile organic compounds, further analysis with short-term measurements of a range of VOCs would be necessary to quantify their contribution to the observed changes," says co-author Tim Butler (IASS Potsdam/FU Berlin). The researchers also note the need for further reductions in NOx emissions in Berlin to reduce ozone pollution in summ