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Google had an AI chatbot years ago, execs shut it down: report – Business Insider

Years before ChatGPT, two Google engineers developed an advanced AI chatbot. Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress

Google is expected to release its widely anticipated AI chatbot Bard in the near future. But years ago, two ex-Google engineers pushed their former employer to release a similar chatbot to the public and they were met with resistance, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

Around 2018, Daniel De Freitas, who was a research engineer at Google, started working on an AI side project with the goal of creating a conversational chatbot that mimicked the ways humans speak, former colleagues told the Journal. Noam Shazeer, a software engineer for Google's AI research unit, later joined the project.

Per the Journal, De Freitas and Shazeer were able to build a chatbot, which they called Meena, that could argue about philosophy, speak casually about TV shows, and generate puns about horses and cows. They believed that Meena could radically change the way people search online, their former colleagues told the Journal.

But their efforts to launch the bot which they renamed LaMDA, which would become the language model behind Bard reached an impasse after Google executives said the chatbot didn't adhere to its AI safety and fairness standards, per the Journal. Executives thwarted multiple attempts made by the engineers to send the bot to external researchers, add the chat feature to Google Assistant, and launch a demo to the public, the Journal reported.

Frustrated by the executive response, De Freitas and Shazeer left Google near the end of 2021 to start their own company despite CEO Sundar Pichai personally requesting they stay and continue working on the chatbot, per the Journal. Their company, which now goes by Character.Ai, has since released a chatbot that can roleplay as figures like Elon Musk or Nintendo's Mario.

"It caused a bit of a stir inside of Google," Shazeer said in an interview with investors Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan last month. "But eventually we decided we'd probably have more luck launching stuff as a startup."

De Freitas and Shazeer declined an interview request from the Journal, and did not respond to Insider's request for comment. Google did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Google's hesitancy to release its AI tools is nothing new.

In 2012, Google hired Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist, to work on its language processing models, TechCrunch reported. About one year later, Google bought British AI firm DeepMind which aimed to create artificial general intelligence, per TechCrunch.

However, academics and tech experts pushed back on using the tech due to ethical concerns around mass surveillance, the Journal reported, and Google committed to limiting how it would use AI. In 2018, Google ended its project to use its AI tech in military weapons in response to employee backlash, per the Journal.

But Google's AI plans may now finally see the light of day, even as discussions around whether its chatbot can be responsibly launched continue. The company's chatbot, Bard, will come after Microsoft whose stock is on the rise released its own chatbot through Bing.

After Google's Bard chatbot generated a factual error during its first public demo last month, Google employees were quick to call the announcement "rushed" and "botched." The chairman of Alphabet, John Hennessy, agreed that Google's chatbot wasn't "really ready for a product yet."

Pichai has asked all Google employees to spend two to four hours of their time helping test the product so it can be ready for launch.

"I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that's to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential," Pichai wrote to Google employees in a February memo.

"The most important thing we can do right now is to focus on building a great product and developing it responsibly," he said.

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The Biggest March Snowstorm in Indiana History Will Blow Your Mind – AZ Animals

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Indiana is located in the Midwestern region of the United States, which means it experiences diverse weather conditions throughout the year, including snowstorms during the winter months. Snowstorms are common in Indiana, and the state has experienced many significant snowstorms.

One of the most notable snowstorms in recent history in Indiana took place from March 19th to 20th, 1906, all over significant parts of Indianapolis and surrounding areas. This event brought over 12.3 inches of snow to the state, accompanied by high winds and subzero temperatures. The storms severity resulted in a near-complete shutdown of the states operations for several days.

This article will delve into the nature of the snowstorm, its effects on residents and wildlife alike, and other essential points. Lets get into it.

iStock.com/corradobarattaphotos

In March, Indiana transitions from winter to spring, making the weather somewhat unpredictable. Some days can be cold, while others feel like spring has arrived. The temperature on this month usually ranges from the mid-30sF (1-2C) in the northern part of the state to the mid-40sF (6-7C) in the southern part of the state.

It tends to rain quite a bit in March in Indiana, with an average precipitation amount of 3-4 inches (76-102 mm) statewide. Sometimes, it can also snow, especially in the northern part of the state. The southern part of the state often rains more than it snows.

March is a transitional month that experiences a variety of precipitation types due to the changing weather patterns. Precipitation is any form of water that falls from the atmosphere to the ground, including rain, snow, sleet, and freezing rain.

Indiana typically experiences a mix of precipitation types, including rain, snow, and a combination of both. The kind of precipitation depends on several factors, such as temperature, humidity, and air pressure.

Rainfall is a common type of precipitation in Indiana in March, particularly towards the latter half of the month when temperatures start to warm up. Rain is liquid water that falls from the sky and is formed when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses and falls to the ground.

Indiana can also experience snow in March, particularly during the early part of the month when temperatures are colder. Snow is formed when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses directly into ice crystals, which then fall to the ground.

March in Indiana can be a bit wild with severe weather, such as thunderstorms and even tornadoes. However, the frequency and intensity of these events are inconsistent from year to year. So, its wise to be prepared for all weather conditions. Checking the weather forecast frequently and dressing appropriately in layers can make a big difference in keeping you comfortable and safe throughout the day.

iStock.com/alexeys

On March 19th and 20th, 1906, Indiana experienced one of the largest snowstorms ever to hit the state during this month. The storm was part of a broader system that affected the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States.

The snowstorm dumped several feet of snow in many areas of Indiana, with some locations receiving up to 12.3 inches of snowfall. This amount of snow made it difficult for residents to move around or carry out daily activities, and it also caused significant damage to buildings, power lines, and transportation systems.

Callan Verdon/Shutterstock.com

The most severe snowstorm to ever hit Indiana in March was a historical event that left residents of the state reeling from its effects. The storm, from March 19th to 20th, 1906, brought high winds and heavy snowfall throughout much of the state.

Many areas were left without power or access to necessities such as food and water for days after the storm had passed. Furthermore, some roads were blocked by fallen trees or deep snow accumulations, making travel difficult for those who needed it. This devastating winter weather event impacted many Indiana residents both directly and indirectly. Heres a detailed account of how the snowstorm affected Indiana residents.

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Transportation was one of the most affected areas during the storm in Indiana. The heavy snowfall and high winds made roads impassable, leaving many people stranded in their homes. Public transportation systems such as buses and trains were also halted, causing further disruption to travel plans.

The storm also had a significant impact on the trucking industry. Trucks are crucial for transporting goods all around the state, but with the roads covered in snow and ice, it was tough for them to drive safely. This meant there were delays in getting important supplies and goods to where they needed them.

Agriculture in Indiana was another industry severely impacted by the storm. Many farmers experienced extensive crop damage due to the weight of the snow and ice, which broke tree branches, destroyed crops, and damaged irrigation systems.

Livestock farmers also faced challenges as the snow and freezing temperatures made providing food and water for their animals difficult. The transportation disruptions caused by the snowstorm hindered the timely delivery of feed, fertilizers, and other farm supplies, further complicating the situation.

The weight of the snow caused many roofs to collapse, and fallen trees and power lines caused damage to homes and buildings. Some residents also experienced flooding due to snow and melting ice.

The weight of heavy snow and ice on roofs, trees, and power lines led to many collapses and breakages. Buildings, garages, and barns suffered damage to their roofs, walls, and foundations, and some were utterly destroyed. Homeowners had to deal with burst pipes, flooding, and water damage caused by melting snow and ice seeping through roofs and walls.

Vehicles were not spared, as some got stuck or damaged while driving on the slippery, snow-covered roads.

The storms severity likely elicited fear and anxiety among Indiana residents. Particularly affecting those in vulnerable situations, such as the elderly or those with pre-existing mental health conditions.

The storm also forced residents to stay indoors and limit their activities, which may have led to a sense of isolation and helplessness. Prolonged isolation can be detrimental to mental health and may result in feelings of boredom, loneliness, and cabin fever.

Furthermore, the financial burden of storm-related damages and lost wages could have heightened stress and anxiety among residents. Particularly causing stress for those already experiencing financial difficulties. Disruption to daily routines and uncertainty regarding the duration of the storm may have also contributed to feelings of frustration and helplessness.

Late-season snowstorms can be tough on the wildlife in Indiana. When it gets cold and the snow piles up, animals struggle to find enough food and shelter to make it through. This is especially true for smaller animals like mice and shrews that find it challenging to get food when the snow is deep. This can cause problems for predators who depend on them for food too.

Even bigger animals like deer and elk can be affected by snowstorms. They may have trouble finding enough food and moving around when snow is on the ground. This can make them sick or even cause them to die in serious cases. And migrating birds might have to cancel their journey north because of the storm, which can mess up their nesting schedules.

Moreover, snowstorms can cause changes in animal behavior. Predators may have to adjust their hunting strategies, while prey animals may alter their habits to find food and shelter. Human activities can also worsen the impact of these storms on wildlife. Such as, limiting development and habitat destruction which give the ability to animals to survive in harsh weather conditions. Pollution and climate change can also contribute to more severe weather events, putting additional pressure on animal populations.

iStock.com/Hongkun Wang

In the face of a snowstorm, animals in Indiana must overcome various challenges to survive. The cold, snowy weather and food scarcity can significantly threaten their well-being. Nevertheless, different species have adapted to the winter climate in unique ways.

Some hibernate to conserve energy, while others grow thicker fur to stay warm. Certain animals modify their foraging behavior, whereas others migrate to more hospitable environments. This section will delve into the strategies employed by different animals in Indiana to cope with snowstorms and thrive despite the harsh winter conditions.

Alan Cressler / CC BY-SA 2.0 License

The woodrat has physical adaptations that help it to cope with snowstorms. Its long, bushy tail provides insulation and helps to maintain balance while moving through deep snow. The woodrats large, dark eyes are adapted for low-light conditions, enabling it to forage for food even in the dim light of a winter day.

Another adaptation of the Allegheny woodrat is its ability to go into torpor. Torpor is a state of reduced metabolic activity similar to hibernation. The woodrats body temperature and metabolic rate decrease during extreme cold or food scarcity periods. This enables it to conserve energy and survive until conditions improve.

Badgers have developed several adaptations to cope with the challenges of snowstorms and other harsh winter weather conditions.

One of the primary ways badgers cope with snowstorms is by seeking shelter in their underground burrows. These burrows provide insulation from the cold and protection from the elements. Badgers build their burrows with multiple entrances and exits. These allow them to move in and out even if one entrance is blocked by snow.

Badgers also have physical adaptations that enable them to survive in snowy conditions. Their thick fur helps to keep them warm, while their long claws allow them to dig through snow and ice to access food or create new burrows if necessary.

Beavers have physical adaptations that allow them to survive in snowy conditions. For example, their fur is specially designed to trap air close to their skin, which provides insulation and keeps them warm in cold weather. They also have webbed hind feet, which they use to move around their lodges and dams in the snow.

Beavers have another adaptation that allows them to store food for the winter months. They construct food caches near their lodges, consisting of tree bark, twigs, and other vegetation. This ensures they have access to food even when it might otherwise be scarce.

Chuck Szmurlo / Creative Commons

Black bears are remarkable creatures. They have developed several strategies to cope with the challenges of snowstorms and other harsh winter weather conditions.

One of the primary ways black bears cope with snowstorms is by hibernating during winter. Hibernation allows them to conserve energy and avoid the worst snow and cold temperatures. While in hibernation, black bears enter a state of reduced metabolic activity, slowing down their heart rate, breathing rate, and body temperature to save energy.

However, if black bears venture out during a snowstorm, they have several adaptations that help them cope with the harsh conditions. For instance, they have thick fur that insulates them against the cold and repels moisture, keeping them dry and warm.

One of the ways that bobcats cope with snowstorms is by reducing their activity level and conserving energy. Amid snowstorms, bobcats may take shelter in dense vegetation, under rocks or ledges, or in dens, they have dug out themselves. By reducing their activity, they can conserve energy and minimize exposure to harsh weather conditions.

Bobcats also have thick, fluffy fur that insulates them against the cold. Their fur traps warm air close to their skin, providing excellent insulation to keep them warm and dry amid snowstorms. They also have fur on the bottoms of their paws that provides additional insulation and helps them walk on top of the snow.

Birds have various methods of coping with extreme weather. They adapt their behavior by huddling together for warmth and switching their diets to seeds and berries.

They also possess physical adaptations, such as specialized feathers that provide insulation and oil glands to repel water. Finding shelter is also essential; birds seek protected areas like thickets and birdhouses. Water is also vital; some birds will melt snow or ice to access it.

Annette Shaff/Shutterstock.com

Fish living in Indiana have developed unique ways of coping with harsh winter weather, including snowstorms. To survive, they adjust their behavior by seeking out warmer, more stable areas of lakes or moving closer to shore for shelter. They also possess physical adaptations like brown fat tissue, specialized gills, and the ability to tolerate low oxygen levels.

Finding food during winter can be challenging. Some species feed less frequently, relying on stored energy reserves, while others continue to feed on available prey.

The biggest snowstorm in Indiana left a significant mark in the states history. It brought widespread disruptions, challenges, and even dangers to the residents, wildlife, and the environment. But amidst the snow-covered roads, power outages, and property damage, people showed resilience, kindness, and a sense of community.

Strangers helped each other shovel driveways, delivered supplies to the elderly, and shared warmth and comfort in makeshift shelters.

The snowstorm may have caused chaos and inconvenience, but it also revealed the best of human nature in times of crisis. As the snow melts and life slowly returns to normal, let us not forget the lessons we learned and the values we upheld during this challenging time. Let us continue to look out for each other, appreciate the beauty of nature, and be prepared for whatever the future holds.

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What Lies Beneath: The Deep Geology of Prose – Literary Hub

While writing my novel The Dog of the North, I found myself preoccupied with geology. One of the characters is based on my geologist mother, which led me to re-immerse myself in how she viewed the world. Her career included time with the USGS and the National Park Service as a Ranger Naturalist, and her interest in the formations that make up the earth had long spilled over into our lives.

We were often sent into the Grand Canyon to observe naked cross sections of geologic history, from the light gray Kaibab Limestone at the rim to the dark and glossy two-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist along the Colorado River below. We spent many days on trips in the southwest hunched over, scanning the ground for crinoids and petrified wood. When I was living in Vermont, she came to visit and spoke animatedly of the glacial drumlins shed seen flying up the Hudson Valley. Her passion for the stories told by the land brought her eventually to Australia, where she immigrated and spent the rest of her life.

There, I recalled how she reacted to the landscapes in novels that werent ostensibly about geologysuch as Voss by Patrick White, which tells the story of the doomed Leichhardt expedition in the Australian outback in the mid-nineteenth centurymarking up pages with comments on the topography.

The Australian chapters in The Dog of the North arose from this personal history, and took me on a research junket to the Barkly karst formations in northwest Queensland. A few lessons on the earths substance and structure were soon in order. Mostly limestone, karst formations like these are found across the world, laid down by ancient seas, composed of shells, sand and calcium carbonate, rife with fossils. Brittle, permeable by water, the terrain in these regions is riddled with caves and underground pools. Its prone to crumble and collapsewhich suggested all sorts of narrative possibilities.

But symbolic possibilities also presented themselves. When limestone, a sedimentary rock, undergoes pressure and stress, the calcite in it crystallizes, and those crystals in its molecular structure interlock into a tight matrix. And thus the rock becomes something else entirely. Its now metamorphic. Limestone becomes what we know as marble. Sandstone under these conditions becomes quartzite. Shale becomes slate. Harder substances, beautiful, enduring. Had my mother ever mentioned this? Maybe, but I guess I hadnt been listening.

As I worked over my manuscript, roughing it up from every direction, the forces of the earth on my mind, I began to see a metaphor taking shape to do with the importance of subjecting our prose to metamorphic conditions if we are to write novels that become more than the sum of their parts. And that while we may believe weve reached our goal when we achieve limestone, in itself an accomplishment for a novel in progress, we should push on with all the resources at our disposal to transmute the work to the next, more luminous stage. To apply intense, unflinching pressure to every aspect of the work in progress, subject every participating component to the heat of judgment. Stress our base materials to such a degree that they move towards crystallization, towards marble.

In other words, a process beyond what we think of as revision.

Everyone has their methods. I might start with appraisals at the word level. Which are empty, filler. This noun is too general. That verb is flat. Then move on to syntactics: this phrase here, not there. Then dynamics: This paragraph has no spring, no life. Have I told it slant, so that it topples inevitably into the next paragraph? Then tonal: Does it evoke anythinghumor, sorrow, joy, darkness, lightor is it merely a slab of print? Then acoustical: Does it have rhythm, does it have music? Then content: What really happens in this sentence, this paragraph, this page, this chapter? And so on. Ill read it aloud, or Ill switch fonts and see it anew on the page. Leave no stone/word unturned.

And so at what point comes this hoped for metamorphosis? I think I know when it happens for me. Its when I finally pick up the work and think, who wrote this? All of those bits and pieces and decisions became this? Its like alchemy, almost magical.

I didnt have much interest in geology when my mother was alive. I made fun of glacial drumlins. When she moved to Australia she left behind a storage locker that, years later, I had to empty out after she was gone. Id expected to find household items deemed unworthy of shipping to the southern hemisphere, but no, the locker was filled with rocks.

They werent labeled, though some I recognized like old friends. Notable cobbles from riverbeds that had once been placed around our yard in LA (and are now in mine). Mineral specimens, fossils, canvas sacks of agates and geodes. I had no idea where they came from and since I couldnt ask her, I understood that identifying them was up to me. Strangely, now all of a sudden Im looking for the geological everywhere, even in metaphor. I want to know what lies beneath everything, and how it came to be.

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The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie is available from Penguin Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

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What Makes Close Friendships? How To Get Closer To A Friend … – mindbodygreen

A close friendship is characterized by mutual trust, respect, and emotional intimacy, according to clinical psychologist Annia Raja, Ph.D. "It's a relationship where you can feel comfortable being yourself and sharing your innermost thoughts and emotions without fear of judgment or rejection," she tells mbg. "Research has shown that people with strong friendships are happier, healthier, and more resilient to stress."

According to Shani Gardner, LCSW, a licensed clinical social worker and the owner of Soulful Grace Therapy, close friendships also involve honesty, support, and understanding. "Close friends provide safety, comfort, and a deep sense of alignment and intimacy," she tells mbg. "Close friendships are important because we are social beings, and we are wired for connection with others. We have a natural desire to be seen and understood; close friendships allow that desire to be satisfied."

In that sense, the psychology of close friendships comes down to our very human nature. Jennifer Chain, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and founder of the group therapy practice Thrive for the People, says humans have thrived as a species because of our interdependence on each other. "Therefore, having meaningful and close friendships meets one of our foundational needs for connection and belonging."

And as Chain adds, meaningful friendships are associated with important wellness outcomes like happiness, contentment, self-esteem, improved memory, decreased loneliness, increased life satisfaction, lower blood pressure, and longevity.

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Profile: Mind over Matter: Wilsonville Elementary student Patton … – Shelby County Reporter

Published 9:14 am Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Written by Noah Wortham

One day after an intensive surgery on the back of his legs that was supposed to put him in a wheelchair and prevent him from being able to put weight on his legs, he stood and took steps.

A 9-year-old Wilsonville Elementary School student, Patton Hunt fought through the pain and became an immediate inspiration to his family and the community.

Still battling health concerns on a daily basis and recently out of surgery, Pattons fight is ongoing, but one he will continue to stand for.

Tough challenges

Leigh Hunt is seven months pregnant and out driving when a woman runs a stop sign and crashes into her, causing Leighs stomach to hit the steering wheel.

He was born that day, Leigh said. He was in the NICU for a little over six weeks. It was kind of chaotic. We were not expecting him to be there that soon. We had some scary moments while he was in there with him being so little and having some of the issues of being born early and the injuries.

Although he was still in the NICU, they proceeded to begin therapy with Patton until he was able to go home.

When we came home from the hospital, ARC of Shelby County would come to our house and they would do therapy with him, Leigh said. At the beginning, it was just stuff like him being able to hold his head up. Then we started going to Life Without Limits Clinic, and he learned to walk there.

Patton was almost two years old when he started walking on his own.

As a result of the car accident, Patton continues to suffer from both hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy.

Patton has hydrocephalus, which means that his fluid in his brain doesnt drain like everybodys else does, Leigh said. He has a shunt that its basically a little drain and a valve that allows fluid to drain off of him and off his brain so that his body can reabsorb it. Without that he literally wouldnt be alive, it would cause too much brain pressure.

Patton has undergone more than 20 surgeries despite being only 9 years old.

We were told when he was a baby that he wouldnt walk. Then we were told, Well, he may walk with crutches. But he does gymnastics, he swims, hes an awesome kid, Leigh said while laughing.

Alongside the shunt, Patton also has to wear braces to assist him in walking.

Eventually he had to have a gastrocnemius recession performed to loosen up the leg muscles on the back of his legs.

Its a pretty intense surgery, and he came home in casts and leg immobilizers, Leigh said. He wasnt supposed to be able to stand, to bear weight on either leg. He was supposed to be in a wheelchair for a while. As soon as he got home that day, after surgery, he was just bound and determined he was going to walk. And so, he did, it hurt, but he was already walking that first day which was pretty incredible. Thats the determined spirit that he has.

Despite these issues, Patton has strived to do the things he enjoys with the full support of his parents.

Weve always tried to push Patton to do more than he thinks that he can do, and then he always kind of surprises us with all that he is able to do, Leigh said.

Striving to be a normal kid

Despite his struggles, Patton continues to be an active child on the family farm.

My favorite hobbies and things to do are like dig holes, ride horses, help on the farm and feed animals, Patton said. I like to work out, and I can run a mile and stuff.

He enjoys learning about how things work and what things are called. His favorite classes at school are science and PE.

Hes a very unique kid, Leigh said. Hes very inquisitive, which I guess a lot of kids are, but I think hes a deep thinker. Hes all the time asking me questions about stuff. He likes to figure things out. He loves to work and to earn money and save money for things.

Patton stands out in the crowd, not just for what hes overcome, but for who he is.

Pattons talents are also observed by his teachers and peers at Wilsonville Elementary School. Patton, and one other child, were chosen as the Fourth Grade Good Citizen for the month of October.

An organization in Chelsea named Bikes 4 Kids creates custom bicycles tailor made to the wishes of kids. Charlie Bradford, the owner of the organization, made a custom bike for Patton.

The goal was to build something that looked more custom and normal to other bikes, so when he rode with his cousin he would have a bike, Bradford said. But with his disability it was hard to balance a bike. We had to build something with custom training wheels.

When Bradford met with him to get an idea of the type of bike he wanted, Patton introduced himself.

My name is Patton, and he shook my hand like a grown man with a cowboy hat on and he knew exactly what he wanted, Bradford said. He said, Before we get started, I want to make sure you know what I want.

Patton then told Bradford that he only wanted two colors on his biketan and army greenand after the bike was put together, they presented it to him.

It looked really good, Bradford said. He loves it, was crazy about it. And after that, he got the bike and he rides the wheels off of it.

After making a custom bike for Patton, Bradford chose Patton to be the Grand Marshall for Chelseas first Bikes 4 Kids rodeo.

Me, Patton and his family had become pretty close after that, Bradford said. I decided Patton would be a great Grand Marshall. Because he loves rodeos. Hes a cowboy, a farm boy. And when I told him, that boy was as excited as he can be, he could just not wait. The days were too long.

Patton attended the rodeo as the Grand Marshall and did his job in riling up the crowds.

Pattons a really good kid, Bradford said. Hes very smart for his age and he knows how to talk to people respectfully. Hes very talented in that area, to be honest, hes above his level.

An ongoing battle

On Monday, Nov. 7, Patton came home from school due to a headache and lethargy. He then began to throw up. His parents took him to the hospital, and he had to get the shunt in his brain replaced.

We went to the hospital and they operated and put in a new shunt, but he had some bleeding in his brain when they did that, Leigh said. Normally, when he has the shunt surgery, he just gets better afterwards, its immediate relief. But he didnt have that. He was still hurting really bad after the first surgery. They went in to do another revision to check what was going on, and what happened is there was some bleeding with the first surgery that had blocked the catheter that allows fluid to drain off his brain. So, they put in another new shunt.

Patton has had 17 brain surgeries in the last nine years, and yet, he keeps going and continues to do the things that he loves.

If I could give advice to a parent whose child was faced with some challenges, especially early on because Pattons conditions were from birth, is that God can do amazing things, Leigh said. He can do more than we think sometimes, and I always say that if I would have been able to see the whole picture, all the 20 plus surgeries that Patton would have to have, the thousands of hours of therapy, all those sorts of things.

If I could have seen it all at once I would have said I wasnt equipped to do that, but God only shows you one moment at a time. So, we cant live in the future. We cant live in the past. We can only live in the present moment. And so, we take each moment that were given and we do the very best that we can with that moment.

Despite his struggles, Patton has large ambitions.

Im going to Troy to study nursing, and then Im going to UAB to become a pediatric neurosurgeon, Patton said. I want to work at Childrens. The reason is because Ill know the feelings of the kids that have the same problems.

His parents are there to help him every step along the way and encourage him to keep going.

Weve never set any sort of limitations with him, weve always I feel like tried to give him every opportunity that there was and to encourage him to always do his best with everything.

Patton doesnt just have high ambitions, he also carries with him an optimistic worldview.

Theres some tough times, but God really has blessed us with the good times, Patton said. We have a hospital to go to when there is bad stuff. The hospitals not fun but it is a place to go to, and just when theres a million things to be sad about, theres always one thing to be happy about.

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Will Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Benjamin Sisko Ever Return to … – Den of Geek

The most obvious explanation is that Siskos character was left in a very different place than the other captains, figuratively and literally, at the end of his series. While Kirk, Picard, and Janeway all ended their series as captains and later became Starfleet admirals, Sisko ended Deep Space Nine not even living on the same plane of reality as Starfleet. He joined the Bajoran Prophets, aka the wormhole aliens, becoming a non-corporeal, extra-dimensional being existing outside of linear time. This makes it a lot more difficult for him to pop up in a cameo, unlike, say, Janeway, who was able to quickly video-call Picard to give him orders in Star Trek: Nemesis.

The only direct reference to Sisko in modern Star Trek had Lower Decks Beckett Mariner confirm in the season 3 episode Reflections that Sisko is working hard in a celestial temple. This presumably means that he is still Propheting with the wormhole aliens at the time that episode is set (2381 CE, 20 years before the currently-airing Picard season 3). When Lower Decks visits Deep Space Nine in the following episode, Siskos baseball is still sitting on Colonel Kiras desk, so he has clearly not come back for it yet at that point. In Star Trek Online, Sisko convinces another Prophet to give the player character a task, suggesting he is still at the celestial temple in that continuity as well.

But the celestial temple is hardly an impossible place to come back from. In fact, actor Avery Brooks specifically requested that Sisko promise his pregnant wife Kasidy that he would come back to her. Brooks did not like the representation of a Black man abandoning his pregnant wife to raise their child alone, and as a result Sisko appeared to reassure Kasidy that he would return presumably, while their child was still relatively young. As Picard season 3 has clearly shown, suddenly meeting your child as an adult is not the same as raising them.

Indeed, in the non-canon Star Trek novelverse, Sisko has already come back. In the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels, he returned on the day of his and Kasidys daughters birth. In the new series of comics from IDW, he returns after three years. In the hypothetical new episode sketched out by Deep Space Nines writers in the 2019 documentary What We Left Behind, Sisko reappears after 20 years and says, Im sorry, Jake. I lost track of time.

Even if Sisko were still with the Prophets by the time of Picard (which would break his promise to Kasidy, who would have been waiting 26 years by then), theres nothing stopping him from featuring in any of the current shows as a Prophet, just as Wesley Crusher made a cameo appearance as a Traveler in Picard season 2. In fact, he should theoretically have a very easy time showing up whenever he wants, since time has no meaning to the Prophets. Like Wesley, Sisko could jump to other timelines, and could even pop up in the 23rd century of Strange New Worlds or the 32nd century of Discovery, as well as the 24th and 25th-century-set Lower Decks, Prodigy, or Picard.

So Siskos return is far from impossible. But fans know better than to get their hopes up too much at this point. After all, Deep Space Nine tends to receive less attention among the wealth of references, homages, actor cameos, and other nods in the currently airing Star Trek shows.

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Three forgotten gems of ‘deep soul’ music from the American South – EL PAS USA

Our new Hidden Gems series aims to educate and entertain readers with excellent but obscure music. We begin this month with an exquisite selection of what is known as deep soul, the gritty sounds of the southeastern United States, where much of the best soul music was made.

The American Deep South includes music hotspots like Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham and Macon, but not Nashville, which is a little too close to Chicago. The region gave birth to many all-time greats like Little Richard, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas and Al Green. It is a sacred place for soul music, and major record labels like Stax Records (Memphis, Tennessee) and FAME Studios (Muscle Shoals, Alabama) were started there. However, this months hidden gems dont come from any famous names but from three forgotten musicians. They represent the true deep soul, a pure, vibrant and evocative sound that reminds us of the greatness of soul music, that extraordinary genre created from the depths of human emotion.

He could have had it all but died almost penniless. Arthur Alexander pioneered what became known as the Muscle Shoals sound, a fascinating soup of soul, blues and R&B cooked with passion and quality in the FAME studios. Alexander made music before other stars like Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Candi Staton came along. You Better Move On has hints of the late 1950s when American teenagers spent their time hanging around diners, racing cars and fooling around at summer fairs. With deep and precise tones, Alexander is a southern crooner whose unhurried singing slowly melts his listeners. The music beats like a feverish high-school dance, but the lyrics convey painful feelings of life in the segregated and poverty-stricken South.

Marred by his bipolar disorder, James Carrs career never soared to the heights of contemporaries like Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett. However, You Got My Mind Messed Up proves that he was undoubtedly talented. Carr was turned down by Stax Records, but he landed a recording contract with Goldwax in 1964 and stayed with the label for the rest of his short career. He would spill out his heart in his songs, his breaking voice wailing in true Redding style just listen to Love Attack. This splendid album shows he belongs at the top of the southern soul pantheon, but history relegated him to the shadows.

She grew up singing gospel music but blossomed outside church walls. Duke had a torridly beautiful voice and started out as a backup singer for Nina Simone. In 1969, former Atlantic Records producer Jerry Swamp Dogg Williams Jr. signed her as a solo artist and recorded the unappreciated Im a Loser album. Doggs elegant production meshed perfectly with Dukes melancholic sound, who was likened to a mid-career Franklin, but in a leather jacket, more badass and streetwise. After all, she had grown up in Georgia and knew what it was like to struggle for her daily bread.

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Banking in the Cloud: How Financial Institutions Can Mitigate the … – JD Supra

As organizations in the financial sector continue to migrate IT and business services to the cloud and adopt other cloud offerings, it is important that financial institutions understand the risks associated with each. A U.S. Treasury report issued on February 8, 2023, showed that regulators are closely monitoring how the financial sector uses cloud services. With cloud service providers becoming more assertive in shifting risks to their customers, financial institutions may experience higher levels of regulatory scrutiny.

Over the past decade, the financial services sector has steadily migrated many information technology (IT) functions to cloud service providers everything from video teleconferencing to internal communications to customer-facing applications. However, models of adoptions and associated risk vary widely across the sector. As the Financial Services Sector Risk Management Agency , the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a report on February 8, 2023, assessing these risks and associated challenges affecting the financial sector.

At its most basic level, cloud computing is a means by which organizations can access on-demand network services and infrastructure without having to host their own servers. It is flexible and scalable, so companies can easily add or remove resources as needed. The financial sector, in particular, has found cloud services to be valuable for a range of purposes, such as supporting remote work and using cloud-native capabilities.

Financial institutions are motivated to increase cloud adoption due to benefits such as cost reduction, quicker deployment of new IT assets, faster product and service development, and improved security and resilience. However, these benefits bring with them both risks and other challenges that organizations in the financial sector should consider as they migrate their IT and business functions to the cloud.

In its report, Treasury found as a symptom of rapid adoption of cloud services across the sector the vast majority of financial institutions have implemented cloud services, but at significantly varied maturity levels. A survey by the American Bankers Association (ABA) in 2021 revealed that more than 90 percent of banks surveyed reported maintaining some form of data, applications, or operations in the cloud. Furthermore, more than 80 percent of those surveyed reported being in the early stages of adopting cloud services. Only 5 percent of the surveyed banks described their use of cloud technology as mature.

Various types of cloud offerings public, private, and hybrid exist to cater to diverse service requirements. Public cloud, for instance, allows multiple customers, or "tenants," to share resources. Private cloud, by contrast, is an environment operated exclusively for a single organization, either on or off premises, and allows the cloud to be tailored to meet specific needs, such as security, compliance, or performance. A hybrid model incorporates both public and private cloud services alongside in-house data centers and is the preferred choice for many large financial institutions.

In contrast, some smaller and mid-sized institutions have adopted models using purely public cloud environments, significantly reducing their cost and data center usage but also increasing their risk. If set up properly, public cloud services can offer a resilient and secure setting. However, the level of resilience and security for a specific cloud service may differ dramatically depending on the provider, service, configuration, provisioning, and management. And, importantly, not all of these functionalities may be accessible in every situation.

Treasury has highlighted six primary obstacles to the adoption of cloud technology in the financial industry:

Treasury plans to take a number of steps to assist financial institutions in mitigation risk from the operational disruption of cloud services. As a preliminary step, Treasury plans to establish a Cloud Services Steering Group to address issues raised in this report. The Steering Group's functions will include:

In light of this regulatory focus on how financial institutions are using cloud technologies, financial institutions can take several steps to mitigate the regulatory and security risks associated with cloud adoption.

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Huawei Cloud Backup and Recovery the answer to SA IT risks – ITWeb

The ongoing and potentially worsening load-shedding in South Africa is impacting a great deal more than IT running costs, it is also putting data and business continuity at risk. Moving strategically to the cloud can mitigate these risks.

This is according to Siphiwe Matore, Cloud Solution Architect at Huawei South Africa, who says powering on-premises data centres with generators can cost organisations hundreds of thousands or even millions of rands in diesel and operational staff. Equally concerning is the risk of costly business downtime and the loss of transactional data during power outages.

Load-shedding has made it very clear that keeping business IT operations running is critical for continuity, and just a few hours of downtime can result in the loss of millions of rands. To experience this multiple times a day is something businesses just cant recover from, she says.

Matore says backup power is not the solution as it becomes apparent that load-shedding may drag on for years to come. Relying on UPS devices, inverters and generators is like putting a plaster on the wound, she says. Constantly switching between mains and backup power can result in service interruptions and damage IT hardware in the long run, she notes.

But it is important to note that load-shedding is not the only reason to worry about a company's data protection and IT service availability. Eighty-six percentof South African businesses experienced some form of cyber security attacks in 2022 alone, and now we're the eighth most attacked country in the world, Matore says. Apart from malicious attacks, there are also other threats such as natural disasters like the storms we experienced in KwaZulu-Natal or hardware failures due to degradation or power surges, or even unintentional areas like staff deleting critical files and data. All these threats will be detrimental to businesses and continuing operations. So organisations really need to ask themselves what are they going to do in the event of a disaster?

She says it has become imperative that organisations move to the cloud to ensure that backup and recovery services are easy to use, efficient, reliable and secure, to ensure uninterrupted and ongoing business continuity.

Matore notes that backup and disaster recovery (DR) are distinctly different. Backup is about data protection, where a copy of your data is created to be used in the event of the original data being lost or unavailable. Traditionally, these data copies were written to tapes or removable drives and storage appliances. Now they are increasingly being stored in the cloud, which can be more economical and secure. On the other hand, DR is a set of measures to ensure the timely recovery of data, applications and systems to a separate physical site following a system failure, natural catastrophe or ransomware attack. So if your primary site were to be compromised, the business could seamlessly continue its IT operations from the cloud and mitigate the loss of business operations and money.

She adds: The use of a hybrid cloud is expected to increase by 31% in the next year in South Africa alone, with 53% of companies using backup as a service and 20% using DR as a service. As predicted at the 2019 Cloud Conference and Expo.

Huawei Cloud with the support of its partners is helping customers migrate to the cloud to mitigate the new data loss and continuity risks they are facing.

Huawei Cloud Backup and Recovery (CBR) enables organisations to backup elastic cloud servers (ECSs), bare metal servers (BMSes), elastic volume service (EVS) disks, SFS turbo file systems, local files and directories, and on-premises VMware virtual environments with ease. In case of a virus attack, accidental deletion or software or hardware fault, organisations can restore data to any point in the past when the data was backed up. CBR protects your services by ensuring the security and consistency of your data, she says.

CBR supports crash-consistent backup for multiple disks on a server and application-consistent backup for database servers, ensuring data security and reliability. Incremental forever backups shorten the time required for backup by 95%. With Instant Restore, CBR supports recovery point objective (RPO) as low as one hour and recovery time objective (RTO) within minutes.

With three availability zones in South Africa, Huawei Clouds Storage Disaster Recovery Service (SDRS) provides cross-AZ disaster recovery (DR) protection for your servers, allowing you to achieve a recovery point objective (RPO) of zero through its high-speed network and continuous replication, while greatly reducing total cost of ownership (TCO). If a fault occurs in the source AZ, you can quickly restore services in the target AZ. Equipped with world-class infrastructure and solid power generation capacity, Huawei Cloud has not recorded a second of downtime since its arrival in South Africa three years ago. Huawei Cloud is invested heavily in R&D, capacity, redundancy and specialist technical support teams in the country, to help partners and customers keep systems running and avoid data loss.

** Sources: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cloud-hosting/306766-cloud-services-in-south-african-companies-here-are-the-latest-stats.html

How vendors and attackers are still exploiting FUD

http://www.securitysa.com/15370r

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Forget the hybrid cloud; its time for the confidential cloud – VentureBeat

As cloud adoption gains traction, its clear that security teams have been left to play catch up. In diverse hybrid cloud and multicloud environments, encrypting data-at-rest and in-transit isnt enough; it needs to be encrypted in use, too. This is where confidential computing comes in.

Today, The Open Confidential Computing Conference (OC3) gathered together IT industry leaders to discuss the development of confidential computing. Hosted by Edgeless Systems, the event welcomed more than 1,200 attendees, technologists and academics.

Speakers included Intel CTO Greg Lavender and Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich. They discussed how the role of confidential computing will evolve as organizations migrate to confidential cloud models.

One of the core panel discussions from the event, led by Russinovich, centered on defining what confidential computing is and isnt.

The most succinct definition is the third leg in the data protection triangle of protecting data at rest, protecting data in transit; confidential computing is protecting data in-use, Russinovich said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. The data is protected while its being processed.

More specifically, a vendor using confidential computing will create a secure piece of hardware that stores encryption keys within an encrypted trusted execution environment (TEE). The TEE encrypts data and code while in use so they cant be modified or accessed by any unauthorized third parties.

Data in use means that, while an application is running, its still impossible for a third party even the owner of the hardware the application is running from ever seeing the data in the clear, saidMark Horvath, senior director analyst at Gartner.

Encrypting data-in-use, rather than at-rest or in-transit, means that organizations can confidentially and securely process personally identifiable information (PII) or financial data with AI, ML and analytics solutions without exposing it in memory on the underlying hardware.

It also helps protect organizations from attacks that target code or data in use, such as memory scraping or malware injection attacks of the likes launched against Target and the Ukraine power grid.

One of the underlying themes at the OC3 event, particularly in a presentation by Lavender, was how the concept of the confidential cloud is moving from niche to mainstream as more organizations experiment with use cases at the networks edge.

The use cases are expanding rapidly, particularly at the edge, because as people start doing AI and machine learning processing at the edge for all kinds of reasons [such as autonomous vehicles, surveillance infrastructure management], this activity has remained outside of the security perimeter of the cloud, said Lavender.

The traditional cloud security perimeter is based on the idea of encrypting data-at-rest in storage and as it transits across a network, which makes it difficult to conduct tasks like AI inferencing at the networks edge. This is because theres no way to prevent information from being exposed during processing.

As the data there becomes more sensitive particularly video data, which could have PII information like your face or your drivers [license] or your car license [plate] number theres a whole new level of privacy that intersects with confidential computing that needs to be maintained with these machine learning algorithms doing inferencing, said Lavender.

In contrast, adopting a confidential cloud approach enables organizations to run workloads in a TEE, securely processing and inferencing data across the cloud and at the networks edge, without leaving PII, financial data or biometric information exposed to unauthorized users and compliance risk.

This is a capability that early adopters are aiming to exploit. After all, in modern cloud environments, data isnt just stored and processed in a ring-fenced on-premise network with a handful of servers, but in remote and edge locations with a range of mobile and IoT devices.

Organizations that embrace confidential computing unlock many more opportunities for processing data in the cloud. For Russinovich, some of the most exciting use cases are multi-party computation scenarios.

These are scenarios where multiple parties can bring their data and share it, not with each other, but with code that they all trust, and get shared insights out of that combination of data sets with nobody else having access to the data, said Russinovich.

Under this approach, multiple organizations can share data sets to process with a central AI model without exposing the data to each other.

One example of this is Accentures confidential computing pilot developed last year. This used Intels Project Amber solution to enable multiple healthcare institutions and hospitals to share data with a central AI model to develop new insights on how to detect and prevent diseases.

In this particular pilot, each hospital trained its own AI model before sending information downstream to be aggregated within a centralized enclave, where a more sophisticated AI model processed the data in more detail without exposing it to unauthorized third parties or violating regulations like (HIPAA).

Its worth noting that in this example, confidential computing is differentiated from federated learning because it provides attestation that the data and code inside the TEE is unmodified, which enables each hospital to trust the integrity and legitimacy of the AI model before handing over regulated information.

While interest in confidential computing is growing as more practical use cases emerge, the market remains in its infancy, with Absolute Reports estimating it at a value of $3.2 billion in 2021.

However, for OC3 moderator Felix Schuster, CEO and founder of Edgeless Systems, confidential computing is rapidly deepening adoption.

Everything is primed for it, said Schuster. He pointed out that Greg Lavender recently spoke in front of 30 Fortune 500 CISOs, of which only two had heard of confidential computing. After his presentation, 20 people followed up to learn more.

This unawareness is a paradox, as the tech is widely available and amazing things can be done with it, said Schuster. There is consensus between the tech leaders attending the event that all of the cloud will inevitably become confidential in the next few years.

Broader adoption will come as more organizations begin to understand the role it plays in securing decentralized cloud environments.

Considering that members of the Confidential Computing Consortium include Arm, Facebook, Google, Nvidia, Huawei, Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, EMD, Cisco and VMware, the solution category is well-poised to grow significantly over the next few years.

So far, confidential computing adoption has largely been confined to regulated industries, with more than 75% of demand driven by industries including banking, finance, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, public sector and defense.

As the Accenture pilot indicates, these organizations are experimenting with confidential computing as a way to reconcile data security with accessibility so that they can generate insights from their data while meeting ever-mounting regulatory requirements.

Keeping up with regulatory compliance is one of the core drivers of adoption among these organizations.

The technology is generally seen as a way to simplify compliance reporting for industries such as healthcare and financial services, said Brent Hollingsworth, director of the AMD EPYC Software Ecosystem.

Instead of dedicating costly efforts to set up and operate a secure data processing environment, organizations can process sensitive data in encrypted memory on public clouds saving costs on security efforts and data management, said Hollingsworth.

In this sense, confidential computing gives decision makers both peace of mind and assurance that they can process their data while minimizing legal risk.

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