tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-138623232024-03-17T01:34:55.605-07:00Indian MillennialINDIA IPPON DESUbalajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.comBlogger887125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-898111837502626872024-03-17T01:33:00.000-07:002024-03-17T01:33:59.382-07:00Douglas Murray interview with Bibi<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F57xdV_mIsA?si=xk4yMWWR9pKZHDBn" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-50910462543880945182024-03-16T21:03:00.000-07:002024-03-16T21:06:43.516-07:00Frank Herbert Dune<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iVd1hPewcCw?si=1CGGNhTcr9RBeanL" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-43742423681026919362024-02-24T19:53:00.000-08:002024-02-24T19:53:23.946-08:00Real story of the us Mexico border<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2a22yNwAaW0?si=VxZTqiuvwQrbDoLV" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-74707299505741572552024-02-19T20:43:00.000-08:002024-02-19T20:43:57.369-08:00Distribution of wealth in America<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHwDNn2N4YPihptszRpApWfZS7U2Ae4IgXQB2nCBdcB-mEXOzCANnSaM1HBfdwRgJaUih4c1IC_ik1zbkLXWUDpgDDX7dtM_7ib9vMEJQ8vm0JUM5mwI8768PIENEQdlTXch4ARrhmdtJvThM7Sbgo9Mk8JLXV5bp4ljLjdoLA12Ond7SmUBc/s1565/Distribution-of-Household-Wealth_Site.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1565" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHwDNn2N4YPihptszRpApWfZS7U2Ae4IgXQB2nCBdcB-mEXOzCANnSaM1HBfdwRgJaUih4c1IC_ik1zbkLXWUDpgDDX7dtM_7ib9vMEJQ8vm0JUM5mwI8768PIENEQdlTXch4ARrhmdtJvThM7Sbgo9Mk8JLXV5bp4ljLjdoLA12Ond7SmUBc/s320/Distribution-of-Household-Wealth_Site.jpeg"/></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeS8jGQ22EvcyYWEma1LBBHCk-vh_s0_OXjBg5hilVdPekThlOYkViFw39Jmr_EuDvJ05yUplhImyPVdVoC1uEI_0-q2nYf3Efm7vgdAUgO_r_OJRgdmmohL9Fbeawxubmq9ezM2OWM4a-Yq-NdyU68WvHh18CG80Xs0Oler25JpSVVRgPsW5/s827/Screenshot_20240220-101018~2.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="827" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeS8jGQ22EvcyYWEma1LBBHCk-vh_s0_OXjBg5hilVdPekThlOYkViFw39Jmr_EuDvJ05yUplhImyPVdVoC1uEI_0-q2nYf3Efm7vgdAUgO_r_OJRgdmmohL9Fbeawxubmq9ezM2OWM4a-Yq-NdyU68WvHh18CG80Xs0Oler25JpSVVRgPsW5/s320/Screenshot_20240220-101018~2.png"/></a></div>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-69109332589482739152024-02-18T23:37:00.000-08:002024-02-18T23:40:33.624-08:00Are 5tate5 ju5tified in oppo5ing the revenue 5haring modelThe 5ixteenth finance commi5ion ha5 it5 job cut out when they decide on the revenue 5haring model for the next 5 year5.<br \><br \>
The primary ta5k of the finance commi5ion i5 to di5tribute revenue equitably 5o that the 5tate5 which are unable to geneate their own revenue have 5ufficient reour5ce5 to fund the development in their region. The commi5ion 5ought to balance the fi5cal need5 equity and performance for determining the criteria for horizontal 5haring<br \><br \>
If we look at the table the weight5 u5ed in the devolution formula ,we can 5ee the income di5tance i5 the large5t weight.<br \><br \><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-JQ_fa7OywgqAD-ULD3Z-Emlnr5tuAZW27PzDoaTDl9hXvdN5u2CIaydTgowcdEhBYDzEkWyOJ75BP-4D-yuwIh1eM1ZClFDvYI9bzVHaJxK3xUzA5T4ZMul4ErddkF-Yf9xVhYXyipneh3TgqFPGXRaUHLTH2FP5Alg4vn-nomLev5C75vU-/s1449/Screenshot_20240219-094911.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1449" data-original-width="728" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-JQ_fa7OywgqAD-ULD3Z-Emlnr5tuAZW27PzDoaTDl9hXvdN5u2CIaydTgowcdEhBYDzEkWyOJ75BP-4D-yuwIh1eM1ZClFDvYI9bzVHaJxK3xUzA5T4ZMul4ErddkF-Yf9xVhYXyipneh3TgqFPGXRaUHLTH2FP5Alg4vn-nomLev5C75vU-/s320/Screenshot_20240219-094911.png"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgguhEDsbhhI9LuwRR5U8muZBOu4tr5znwP3Wzj7MbHmeH96ad4_39y_ahmw11i0VfqDP9p4fpNj7FUUk3N1iqdcPH-qR1S0Pc73NnRLtGRvYPvFzDBbmR2idHynqv-tYGm_OvRj7tB-N1Mt4rzp2qwNz1dHOhyj5J9MjMZX9HzxTTOBCX1lKZa/s1376/Screenshot_20240219-094848.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1376" data-original-width="689" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgguhEDsbhhI9LuwRR5U8muZBOu4tr5znwP3Wzj7MbHmeH96ad4_39y_ahmw11i0VfqDP9p4fpNj7FUUk3N1iqdcPH-qR1S0Pc73NnRLtGRvYPvFzDBbmR2idHynqv-tYGm_OvRj7tB-N1Mt4rzp2qwNz1dHOhyj5J9MjMZX9HzxTTOBCX1lKZa/s320/Screenshot_20240219-094848.png"/></a></div><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \><br \>
Income di5tance i5 calculated by deducting the g5dp of the5tate with the highe5t g5dp per capita metric<br \><br \>
5outh'5 lo55<br \><br \>
with 5uch a low weight for improving their fi5cal condition 5tate5 are unlikely to take an effort to cutheir fi5cal deficit or improve tax collection5.Data from 5tate budget5 5how that 5ome 5tate5 are 5howing a larger 5hare from the divi5ible pool.Bihar 5hare contribute5 to 67.4 percent 5hare of their total 5hare revenue and UP it i5 42 percent 5hare of their total tax revenue.<br \><br \>
On the other end haryana get5 only 13 percent of the total tax revenue.The 5outhern 5tate5 get le55 than 30 percent from their 5hare a5 per the devolution<br \><br \>
Mini5try of finance relea5ed the data betwen FY 2019 and FY 2023 where it 5howed that Bihar and UP were getting 7.26 and 2.49 Rupee5 for every rupee they contributed to the Central coffer5. Wherea5 Mahara5htra, Haryana and Karnataka received 8 pai5e,14 pai5eand 17 pai5e re5pectively. <br \><br \>
5ome economi5t5 believe that the weight5 a55igned to population i5 fair a5 5tate5 with more population will hvae more demand for ba5ic demand. There i5 thought that the weight a55igned to demo performance can be incea5ed to incentivi5e better human development performance to around 15 to 20 percent. al5o it i5 being recommended to reduce the weightage given to income di5tance in the future<br \><br \>
**Hindu Bu5ine55 line article - By Loke5hwari 5K and Parvathi Benu **
balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-20053480101301583052024-02-13T22:48:00.000-08:002024-02-13T22:48:52.531-08:00Free market revolution in Latin america ?By Axel Kai8er in Di8cour8e Magazine<br \><br \>
BUENOS AIRES. I had the chance to speak for nearly an hour with Argentine President Javier Milei on December 9 of last year, one day before he was sworn into office. During our conversation we discussed the future of the libertarian revolution that is taking place in Argentina and his absolute determination to see it crystallized in concrete reforms that would restore freedom and progress to his country. Nearly two months into his presidency, there is no doubt that while much remains to be done, Milei is already off to a great start.<br \><br \>
I’m writing this column from the iconic Palacio Duhau in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, where I have met several well-informed friends. They all concur that, so far, Milei is well on the way to achieving the unthinkable: putting an end to a century of collectivist decline. The lion of the Andes, as Milei is sometimes called, has not wasted time.<br \><br \>
Shortly after coming to power, Milei dramatically narrowed the gap between the official and the market exchange rates by devaluing the peso 54%. He went on to shut down ministries and public offices and lay off swarms of useless bureaucrats. He also passed an emergency decree with 300 measures to deregulate the economy. Among them are the privatization of all public companies, the elimination of rent controls, an open sky policy, cutting subsidies to different sectors of the economy, ending import restrictions, deregulating satellite services and many others. In addition, the reduction of fiscal deficit is moving forward.<br \><br \>
During the first month of Milei’s administration, public spending decreased by 30% in real terms compared to the previous year and the previous month. In other words, the government is already spending almost a third less than in the same period last year when adjusted for inflation. Needless to say, this is only the beginning of the 6.1 points of GDP worth of deficit spending that Milei has to adjust in order to restore a balanced budget. Most of this adjustment (3.2% of GDP) will affect the public sector by cutting spending, while a temporary increase of taxation (2.9% of GDP) will do the rest.<br \><br \>
Despite the harsh measures adopted so far and the challenges some of them face in the courts and congress, Milei’s popularity has stayed at around 60%. Public support and the strong hand of Security Minister Patricia Bullrich explains why the demonstrations orchestrated by the infamous Argentinian unions have not been able to harm the government. If anything, they have contributed to increased public support for Milei’s efforts to fight what he calls the “cast” of “parasites” that have exploited Argentinians for so long. If he is successful in getting rid of the “cast” so that he can turn Argentina around, the ideological and political impact throughout the region will be enormous—even more so because he and other free market advocates have already achieved a lasting change in the mentality and values of millions of young people by replacing collectivist and statist ideas with notions of individual responsibility and freedom. Indeed, the good news is that already this is happening all over Latin America, not just in Argentina.
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For instance, after my December visit to Buenos Aires, I went to Bolivia to give a series of lectures on freedom and the power of the spontaneous order of the market. Over 500 students attended my first lecture there even though, as I found out later, they had to pay for it. Other events organized by young local freedom advocates, such as Rodrigo Mundaka, also took place and had over a thousand participants, including business people and executives. This came as no surprise to me. Followers of freedom are to be found in the millions among the youth of Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru and are increasing their numbers every day. At the same time, socialist leaders are facing increasing resistance.
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Chilean President Gabriel Boric, for example, has run the country into the ground with his statist ideology and anti-police stance. Now the Andean nation faces a dire economic situation and the worst security crisis in its history. As a result, 70% of Chileans reject his socialist administration, according to a recent poll. In Peru, communist President Pedro Castillo was put in prison after an attempted coup. His successor, socialist Dina Boluarte, has been forced to shift to more pro-market policies. In Colombia, Gustavo Petro faces a disapproval rating of 66% in recent polls as a result of his failed policies to tackle unemployment and his willingness to collaborate with terrorist groups. Even Brazil’s President Inácio Lula da Silva is struggling with maintaining his popularity, which is currently running at below 40%.
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The collapsing public support of left-wing leaders in the region presents an excellent opportunity for political alternatives with a more pro-freedom stance. To some extent, a shift to market-oriented policies will be inevitable given the growing number of young people who are becoming libertarians as well as the Milei effect. But it’s not only the youth who are playing a decisive role in the region’s future. Business people in different parts of Latin America are more willing than ever to support libertarian and anti-socialist think tanks and organizations. The most notable cases are Ricardo Salinas in Mexico; Nicolás Ibáñez, Lucy Avilés Walton and Dag von Appen in Chile; Salim Mattar in Brazil; and Erasmo Wong in Peru. All of them have made crucial contributions to spreading the ideas of freedom, fighting against collectivism in their countries and beyond.
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In addition, there are hundreds of free market think tanks and libertarian groups all over the region, with a considerable combined impact. Part of it is due to their active use of social media, which has proven critical in spreading libertarian ideas all over Latin America. It is easy to find YouTube videos of Milei, Agustín Laje, Juan Ramón Rallo and other like-minded Spanish-speaking public intellectuals with several million views, and it is no exaggeration to argue that they have more influence on public opinion than most—if not all—traditional television media. At the same time, demand for Spanish-speaking libertarian public intellectuals is exploding while more people are speaking up against socialism, government intervention and left-wing politicians in general.
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Despite these unprecedented and promising developments, it is too soon to celebrate. Freedom can never be taken for granted anywhere, even less so in a region where collectivism still often seems ingrained in its cultural DNA. But one thing is certain: At long last, the region is starting to experience an intellectual revolution that is elevating liberty to the place it deserves. And, although this phenomenon still has a long way to go, it might change the course of history.
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For there is one revolution with the potential to end all Latin American socialist failures: a freedom-oriented revolution capable of delivering lasting individual liberty, economic progress and dignity for hundred of million of people
<br \><br \>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-55322577554047523292024-02-10T22:10:00.000-08:002024-02-10T22:10:27.475-08:00California bill against aiDEAN W. BALL<br /><br />
FEB 9, 2024
5<br /><br />
1
This week, California’s legislature introduced SB 1047: The Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Systems Act. The bill, introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener (liked by many, myself included, for his pro-housing stance), would create a sweeping regulatory regime for AI, apply the precautionary principle to all AI development, and effectively outlaw all new open source AI models—possibly throughout the United States.
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I didn’t intend to write a second post this week, but when I saw this, I knew I had to: I analyze state and local policy for a living (n.b.: nothing I write on this newsletter is on behalf of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University), and this is too much to pass up.
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A few caveats: I am not a lawyer, so I may err on legal nuances, and some things that seem ambiguous to me may in fact be clearer than I suspect. Also, an important (though not make-or-break) assumption of this piece is that open-source AI is a net positive for the world in terms of both innovation and safety (see my article here).
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With that out of the way, let’s see what California has in mind.<br /><br />
SB 1047<br /><br />
With any legislation, it is crucial to start with how the bill defines key terms—this often tells you a lot about what the bill’s authors really intended to do. To see what I mean, let’s consider how the bill defines the “frontier” AI that it claims is its focus (emphasis added throughout):<br /><br />
“Covered model” means an artificial intelligence model that meets either of the following criteria:<br /><br />
(1) The artificial intelligence model was trained using a quantity of computing power greater than 10^26 integer or floating-point operations in 2024, or a model that could reasonably be expected to have similar performance on benchmarks commonly used to quantify the performance of state-of-the-art foundation models, as determined by industry best practices and relevant standard setting organizations.<br /><br />
(2) The artificial intelligence model has capability below the relevant threshold on a specific benchmark but is of otherwise similar general capability.<br /><br />
The 10^26 FLOPS (floating-point operations) threshold likely comes from President Biden’s Executive Order on AI from last year. It is a high threshold that might not even apply to GPT-4. Because use of that much computing power is (currently) available only to large players with billions to spend, safety advocates have argued that a high threshold would ensure that regulation only applies to large players (I.e. corporations that can afford the burden, aka corporations with whom regulatory capture is most feasible).
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But notice that this isn’t what the bill does. The bill applies to large models and to any models that reach the same performance regardless of the compute budget required to make them. This means that the bill applies to startups as well as large corporations. The name of the game in open-source AI is efficiency. When ChatGPT came out in 2022, based on GPT-3.5, it was a state-of-the-art model both in performance and size, holding hundreds of billions of parameters. More recently, and on an almost weekly basis, a new open-source AI model beats or matches GPT-3.5 in performance with a small fraction of the parameters. Advancements like this are essential for lowering costs, enabling models to run locally on devices (rather than calling to a data center), and for lowering the energy consumption of AI—something the California legislature, no doubt, cares about greatly.
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Paragraph (2) is frankly a bit baffling; the “relevant threshold” it mentions is not even remotely defined, nor is “similar general capability” (similar to what?). This may be simply be sloppy drafting, but there’s a world in which this could be applied to all “general-purpose” models (language models and multi-modal models that include language, basically—at least for now).
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What does it mean to be a covered model in the context of this bill? Basically, it means developers are required to apply the precautionary principle not before distribution of the model, but before training it. The precautionary principle in this bill is codified as a “positive safety determination,” or:
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a determination, pursuant to subdivision (a) or (c) of Section 22603, with respect to a covered model that is not a derivative model that a developer can reasonably exclude the possibility that a covered model has a hazardous capability or may come close to possessing a hazardous capability when accounting for a reasonable margin for safety and the possibility of posttraining modifications.<br /><br />
And “hazardous capability” means:
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“Hazardous capability” means the capability of a covered model to be used to enable any of the following harms in a way that would be significantly more difficult to cause without access to a covered model:
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(A) The creation or use of a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon in a manner that results in mass casualties.
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(B) At least five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) of damage through cyberattacks on critical infrastructure via a single incident or multiple related incidents.
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(C) At least five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) of damage by an artificial intelligence model that autonomously engages in conduct that would violate the Penal Code if undertaken by a human.
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(D) Other threats to public safety and security that are of comparable severity to the harms described in paragraphs (A) to (C), inclusive.<br /><br />
A developer can self-certify (with a lot of rigamarole) that their model has a “positive safety determination,” but they do so under pain and penalty of perjury. In other words, a developer (presumably whoever signed the paperwork) who is wrong about their model’s safety would be guilty of a felony, regardless of whether they were involved in the harmful incident.
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Now, perhaps you will, quite reasonably, say that these seem like bad things we should avoid. They are indeed (in fact, wouldn’t we be quite concerned if an AI model autonomously engaged in conduct that dealt, say, $50 million in damage?), and that is why all of these things are already illegal, and things which our governments (federal, state, and local) expend considerable resources to proactively police.
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The AI safety advocates who helped Senator Wiener author this legislation would probably retort that AI models make all of these harms far easier (they said this about GPT-2, GPT-3, and GPT-4, by the way). Even if they are right, consider how an AI developer would go about “reasonably excluding” the possibility that their model may (or “may come close”) to, say, launching a cyberattack on critical infrastructure. Wouldn’t that depend quite a bit on the specifics of how the critical infrastructure in question is secured? How could you possibly be sure that every piece of critical infrastructure is robustly protected against phishing attacks that your language model (say) could help enable, by writing the phishing emails? Remember also that it is possible to ask a language model to write a phishing email without the model knowing that it is writing a phishing email.
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A hacker with poor English skills could, for example, tell a language model (in broken English) that they are the IT director for a wastewater treatment plant and need all employees to reset their passwords. The model will dutifully craft the email, and all you, as the hacker, need to do are the technical bits: craft the malicious link that you will drop into the email, spoof the real IT director’s email address, etc. Here is GPT-4, a rigorously safety tested model, as these things go, doing precisely this. (GPT-4 also wrote the broken English prompt, for the record).
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What I’ve just demonstrated is with GPT-4, a closed-source frontier model. Now imagine doing this kind of risk assessment if your goal is to release an open-source model, which can itself be modified, including having its safety features disabled. What would it mean to “reasonably exclude” the possibility of the misuse described by this proposed law? And remember that this determination is supposed to happen before the model has been trained. It is true that AI developers can forecast with reasonable certainty the performance—as measured by rather coarse benchmarks—their models will have before training. But that doesn’t mean they can forecast every specific capability the model will have before it is trained—models frequently exhibit ‘emergent capabilities’ during training.
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Imagine if people who made computers, or computer chips, were held to this same standard. Can Apple guarantee that a MacBook, particularly one they haven’t yet built, won’t be used to cause substantial harm? Of course they can’t: Every cybercrime by definition requires a computer to commit.
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The bill does allow models that do not have a “positive safety determination” to exist—sort of. It’s just that they exist under the thumb of the State of California. First, such models must go through a regulatory process before training begins. Here is a taste (my addition in bold):<br /><br />
Before initiating training of a covered model that is not a derivative model that is not the subject of a positive safety determination, and until that covered model is the subject of a positive safety determination, the developer of that covered model shall do all of the following:
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(1) Implement administrative, technical, and physical cybersecurity protections to prevent unauthorized access to, or misuse or unsafe modification of, the covered model, including to prevent theft, misappropriation, malicious use, or inadvertent release or escape of the model weights from the developer’s custody, that are appropriate in light of the risks associated with the covered model, including from advanced persistent threats or other sophisticated actors.
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(2) Implement the capability to promptly enact a full shutdown of the covered model.
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(3) Implement all covered guidance. (“covered guidance” means anything recommended by NIST, the State of California, “safety standards commonly or generally recognized by relevant experts in academia or the nonprofit sector,” and “applicable safety-enhancing standards set by standards setting organizations.” All of these things, not some—I guess none of these sources will ever contradict one another?)
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…
(7) Conduct an annual review of the safety and security protocol to account for any changes to the capabilities of the covered model and industry best practices and, if necessary, make modifications to the policy.
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(8) If the safety and security protocol is modified, provide an updated copy to the Frontier Model Division within 10 business days.
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(9) Refrain from initiating training of a covered model if there remains an unreasonable risk that an individual, or the covered model itself, may be able to use the hazardous capabilities of the covered model, or a derivative model based on it, to cause a critical harm.
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Once a developer has gone through this months (years?) long process, they can either choose to self-certify as having a “positive safety determination” or proceed with training their model. They just have to comply with another set of rules that make it difficult to commercialize the model, and impossible to open source or allow to run privately on user’s devices:
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(A) Prevent an individual from being able to use the hazardous capabilities of the model, or a derivative model, to cause a critical harm.
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(B) Prevent an individual from being able to use the model to create a derivative model that was used to cause a critical harm.
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(C) Ensure, to the extent reasonably possible, that the covered model’s actions and any resulting critical harms can be accurately and reliably attributed to it and any user responsible for those actions.
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By the way, AI developers pay for this pleasure. The bill creates a “Frontier Model Division” within California’s Department of Technology, which would have the power to levy fees on AI developers to fund its operations. Those operations include not just the oversight described above, but also crafting standards, new regulations, advising the California legislature, and more. The human capital required to do that does not come cheap, and it would not surprise me if the fees ended up being quite high, perhaps even a kind of implicit tax on AI activity.
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Taken together, these rules would substantially slow down development of AI and close the door on many pathways to innovation and dynamism. It is unclear, at least to me, if this law is meant to apply only to California companies developing models (hello, Austin!) or to any model distributed in California. If the latter, then this law would likely spell the end of America’s leadership in AI. I, for one, do not support such an outcome.balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-77368427785554977322024-01-27T09:05:00.000-08:002024-01-27T09:05:52.217-08:00Investment trends in future<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ep0P_ZezULM?si=l_0Yhol02bfC6YD4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-83357033156270256812024-01-27T09:03:00.000-08:002024-01-27T09:03:44.744-08:00Indian box office 2023<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaKKMJDcXiMfOtQ4G9lohA8u0JZ40P41aD9oGB-a3XFQ45qGbk2vdeXhGx0nGuPSxoIH5ASod2rQTdSzoQJP1XEyShwMv6WQLfe2s_yV_50zuYUrxzyTUsjx4EM7N6B9Ct3Sb3BNNDuOoQkJnKsLdZnG9Ozdq84qN7KkYypZeBXAcdjTGNoeqw/s653/17063555199571775671534271658618.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaKKMJDcXiMfOtQ4G9lohA8u0JZ40P41aD9oGB-a3XFQ45qGbk2vdeXhGx0nGuPSxoIH5ASod2rQTdSzoQJP1XEyShwMv6WQLfe2s_yV_50zuYUrxzyTUsjx4EM7N6B9Ct3Sb3BNNDuOoQkJnKsLdZnG9Ozdq84qN7KkYypZeBXAcdjTGNoeqw/s320/17063555199571775671534271658618.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguS0dD8PAQ8vCYsW0b1yr9dhdd4dIePpEjSUUlaraJLK-WJhumB209YPClYNBtMLD04a4loM0tfXLFogfp6d5NE9l_NY3MgltmcANQqMoJyoeB-dzFtNesNm7YI5wq330XvT776cgcbrg8fO2d1wl2ANIZT6Z0eEFY6o2_s8hDKLWebu9DVA8C/s653/17063555113571951021218895115950.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguS0dD8PAQ8vCYsW0b1yr9dhdd4dIePpEjSUUlaraJLK-WJhumB209YPClYNBtMLD04a4loM0tfXLFogfp6d5NE9l_NY3MgltmcANQqMoJyoeB-dzFtNesNm7YI5wq330XvT776cgcbrg8fO2d1wl2ANIZT6Z0eEFY6o2_s8hDKLWebu9DVA8C/s320/17063555113571951021218895115950.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YToyYakSWzF6YEOySQl_RnV1B4K8TfEpmLk1DhGot60cOAF9lU1bTdri8YBCDdbymklNQHsjDQLcyOcuQ_Sgf0BX9TZF_-K6EYFa68R8OuqrNf8zs_VN1nXoKbH7-7WR55bS1JcpHkJAGAnUguArGgdGma1H8QsYoqGZPzU2AWvnk3ce4xeP/s653/17063554920374986192026022540368.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YToyYakSWzF6YEOySQl_RnV1B4K8TfEpmLk1DhGot60cOAF9lU1bTdri8YBCDdbymklNQHsjDQLcyOcuQ_Sgf0BX9TZF_-K6EYFa68R8OuqrNf8zs_VN1nXoKbH7-7WR55bS1JcpHkJAGAnUguArGgdGma1H8QsYoqGZPzU2AWvnk3ce4xeP/s320/17063554920374986192026022540368.jpg"/></a></div>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-74672514291375167192024-01-25T20:42:00.000-08:002024-01-25T20:42:51.809-08:00New investment trends 2024<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/239TxUKhQlM?si=S5Pjcu_7uPTPWYoe" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-86587294274492789482024-01-13T19:13:00.000-08:002024-01-13T19:13:57.869-08:00Best of CES2024<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwQqiG127MuiN7o7oNb8yMUE3R64KZpCBbivKh69xYVvY15FIRzVLiBMN652LzaQi2F76-dwFWgTeY' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-46429412984872655792024-01-13T19:02:00.000-08:002024-01-13T19:02:24.851-08:00Architectural digest - Virat Kohli<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxmrKlDCv2C7mt4qZ5yrglVYFOwt9MlLTCBRlYgSUt4FiA931SyCYnwa3_JBkmStdk-pMGsPZ2n7mc' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-7296009358137040222023-12-28T22:56:00.000-08:002023-12-28T22:56:59.043-08:002023 Year in Review <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEice-ZGiel9Bbb2lsUxxEP8ApBy5HMJ4qHyZ7XXvrhyphenhyphen7wtw5WafOU83U6NP1IoqmUDTk6Pm_-vq_NUUF8reiLtgNajpmzeG9hM7ofl4Q8nKUvGtF2S_RH4JVM6lPWtczKFDJ2p6sp4-MC0aJdmuyCCx0Foh_-P-F0qZzH3QdvjsrP0Buy2Seet8/s2715/OC_2023-in-Review_04.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2715" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEice-ZGiel9Bbb2lsUxxEP8ApBy5HMJ4qHyZ7XXvrhyphenhyphen7wtw5WafOU83U6NP1IoqmUDTk6Pm_-vq_NUUF8reiLtgNajpmzeG9hM7ofl4Q8nKUvGtF2S_RH4JVM6lPWtczKFDJ2p6sp4-MC0aJdmuyCCx0Foh_-P-F0qZzH3QdvjsrP0Buy2Seet8/s320/OC_2023-in-Review_04.jpg"/></a></div>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-31554078380086793722023-12-28T22:54:00.000-08:002023-12-28T22:54:47.232-08:00How to make a better cup of coffeeWorld NewsStudy seems to confirm secret ingredient for better coffee<br \><br \>
Coffee connoisseurs have long held the belief that adding a little water to the beans before grinding them could make a difference. A new study by researchers at the University of Oregon seems to confirm exactly why.<br \><br \>
Posted 2023-12-25T12:01:13+00:00 - Updated 2023-12-25T17:34:28+00:00
Best coffee products for the holiday season<br \><br \>
By
Jacopo Prisco
, CNN<br \><br \>
Coffee connoisseurs have long held the belief that adding a little water to the beans before grinding them could make a difference. A new study by researchers at the University of Oregon seems to confirm exactly why.
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The research explored how the technique, which started as an attempt to address the often messy coffee-making process, also affected flavor.
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“When you grind coffee, it goes everywhere,” said study coauthor Christopher Hendon, an associate professor of computational materials chemistry at the University of Oregon. “Dust comes out of the grinder, it’s like a plume that covers everything. But if you add a little water, it seems to not go everywhere. It’s cleaner. That was the primary reason people did it.”
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The mess is caused by static electricity, which is created by friction when the beans are smashed together. This static charge then makes the particles of ground coffee repel each other — like magnets of the same polarity — sending them off in every direction.
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Water acts like an insulator, dampening this effect — a process known as the “Ross droplet” technique. “It was first proposed by some enthusiast on a home barista forum,” Hendon said. “The idea has been around for several years, and originally it was borrowed from the materials production industry, like wood pulping.”
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However, what started out as a way to reduce mess slowly morphed into a more sophisticated way to obtain a better brew — or at least so people thought. The theory was that by reducing static electricity, water not only kept the ground coffee from flying around or sticking to the insides of the grinder, it also prevented microscopic clumps from forming during brewing.
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Why are clumps bad? Because water flows around them, leaving untouched coffee — and therefore flavor — behind. In barista parlance, they decrease extraction yield, or the amount of coffee that ends up in the cup, dissolved in the liquid.
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“If you have clumps forming, there’s going to be significant amounts of void space, kind of like when you stack watermelons,” Hendon said. “As a result when you push water through you end up with less surface area touching the water and therefore lower extraction.”
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The study, published December 6 in the journal Matter, tested this more subtle, harder to see potential benefit of adding water to the beans: getting rid of flavor-robbing microclumps.
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Putting ‘Ross droplet’ to the test
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The research team included two volcanologists, who repurposed a tool usually employed to measure electric charges on wildfire and volcanic ash. They weighed coffee before adding water — using a pipette for precision down to the microgram — and then ground it in a professional grinder, one of the fastest on the market and a popular choice in cafes.
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“The addition of small amounts of water — ranging from one droplet upwards — passivates, or turns off, the static charge and it does it in a way that the coffee exits the grinder never having been charged,” Hendon said. It’s unclear what exactly the water is doing, but he said it’s perhaps absorbing the charge or changing the temperature inside the grinder, reducing the effects of friction.
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“If you add a sufficient amount of water, you can also remove the formation of the clumps,” he added. “You will in principle achieve higher extractions or less waste. That’s exactly what this does, because you’re now providing more available surface area for the same amount of water.”
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Without clumps, all of the brewing water comes into contact with the ground beans, reducing the amount of coffee that goes effectively unused and giving a more consistent brew.
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The ideal amount of water can change based on parameters such as the type of roast and the coarseness of the grind, so there is no one-size-fits-all rule, but on average, the study found that adding water increases the extraction yield by 10%. Hendon warned that this doesn’t necessarily equate to a tangible difference in flavor, but it does confirm the benefit of the “Ross droplet” technique.
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“(Since the study published) I’ve been receiving a lot of emails from people telling me how grateful they are, because from just a cleanliness standpoint, this is a massive, massive upgrade,” Hendon said. “What I would recommend for the home user is to start with a single drop of water and build up from there — there is a substantial amount of nuance in this process.”
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There’s also a catch: The water improves cleanliness regardless of your brewing method, but a brewing benefit only occurs with espresso and, to a lesser extent, filter coffee. When using a cafetiere, French press or AeroPress, nothing much changes because, given the coarser grind required with these, “all of the water is already touching all of the coffee,” Hendon said.
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The quest for a better brew
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Lance Hendrix, a coffee expert and professional barista who wasn’t involved with the study, has tried to replicate the study’s findings and discussed his results in a deep dive on Youtube. He said the work makes a valiant attempt to demystify what is going on when beans are spritzed with water, but for more conclusive evidence, more tests with different grinder models should be performed.<br \><br \>
However, based on his own tests, he said he thinks the benefits are plausible.
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“I found that the amount of water needed for the purported benefits varied wildly from grinder to grinder,” he added. “So, although I don’t think there is currently a practical catch-all implication from the study to immediately improve coffee brewing at home, I think it is an important addition to the attempts at hand trying to understand the extremely complex process of grinding, which is arguably the most important aspect of brewing a cup.”
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François Knopes of the Independent Coffee Lab, a professional coffee roaster and taster who also was not involved with the study, said he routinely sprays his beans before grinding for tasting evaluation and would recommend doing so to anyone in a home setting. However, he thinks doing so elsewhere might be impractical.
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“It would be highly time consuming for most professional setups, such as a coffee shop serving hundreds of espresso-based drinks per day,” Knopes said. “To improve and increase extraction, professional baristas are better off looking for improved grinding technologies or ‘de-clumping’ devices, little needles used to whisk the grounds and break the small boulders generated during grinding.”<br \><br \>
Hendon agreed. “For the time being, it is a little impractical in the sense that you’d have yet another step,” he said. “But I suspect that there will be technologies that will be developed around this idea that adding water on demand is a very powerful technique.”
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The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-9667240317746624122023-12-27T19:10:00.000-08:002023-12-27T19:10:01.646-08:00Top companies in India by market capitalisation<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw_tMPb_UiPfw2MPf7PrdJnyAR79mFV8OvXBD5oWuQIIhk1xUbrqFgamaHc_tksBeWyUkRrDSwQRTdRyaWkUPMlmLDo22IaodgDmVgfuPXeL1THa3og40VG_vhGeYk3Xo_gdsvsIiTF1YH8grP_3tK2aM7ZAkMetsOj0xLVgfgdHhXzdb3ycir/s1500/Indias-50-Most-Valuable-Companies.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw_tMPb_UiPfw2MPf7PrdJnyAR79mFV8OvXBD5oWuQIIhk1xUbrqFgamaHc_tksBeWyUkRrDSwQRTdRyaWkUPMlmLDo22IaodgDmVgfuPXeL1THa3og40VG_vhGeYk3Xo_gdsvsIiTF1YH8grP_3tK2aM7ZAkMetsOj0xLVgfgdHhXzdb3ycir/s320/Indias-50-Most-Valuable-Companies.jpg"/></a></div>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-25214391151008439142023-12-21T18:42:00.000-08:002023-12-21T18:42:27.472-08:00The fiscal theory of price levels<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3t6a7Gj0ubc?si=wJw4AEGLGQD37tsG" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-48018699562976900282023-12-21T17:02:00.000-08:002023-12-21T17:02:37.552-08:00Wet and windy December<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxBm8CuchCwr_Mdw2doFMq_fSZc_ZuzQI728ozu_OoYygd2YGKKejZXRnJmJH4y_68ApqAQMGi2LBSLO0wpW2pMjwDyKv0PjOj68nhP3vIMJP3jW6n0eIq5lr5YmSqUAyJOVHtyU_VtpCsCYl69JPJuw8ssTj_k4ofx1qQ0-w10eaCf5bZGtNU/s1920/IMG_20231222_063144_625.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="864" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxBm8CuchCwr_Mdw2doFMq_fSZc_ZuzQI728ozu_OoYygd2YGKKejZXRnJmJH4y_68ApqAQMGi2LBSLO0wpW2pMjwDyKv0PjOj68nhP3vIMJP3jW6n0eIq5lr5YmSqUAyJOVHtyU_VtpCsCYl69JPJuw8ssTj_k4ofx1qQ0-w10eaCf5bZGtNU/s320/IMG_20231222_063144_625.jpg"/></a></div>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-58058553887076104312023-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:002023-12-21T08:47:35.798-08:00Mizoram startups<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_cqeVA-0AiQ?si=0B7hwB4OB_yhYFZg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-69392150125623220112023-12-02T05:07:00.000-08:002023-12-02T05:07:42.243-08:00India's Low Carbon TransitionIndia’s low carbon transition<br \><br \>
This report is part of the Observer Research Foundation’s “Financing Green Transitions” series which aims to find potential linkages between private capital, in all its forms, and climate action projects. The series will primarily examine domestic and international barriers to private capital entry for mitigation oriented climate projects, while also examining potential avenues for private capital flow entry towards adaptation and resilience projects.
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Over the past year, the world has been subject to a number of tumultuous events. The most significant of these has undoubtedly been the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. There are many far reaching implications to the unexpected proceedings of November 8, 2016, but perhaps the most concerning are Mr. Trump’s views on climate change. The 45th US president has unequivocally stated his belief that climate change is not caused by human actions. He has also reiterated a number of times that he intends to withdraw the United States from the Paris Accords.<br \><br \>
As the United States vacates its leadership position on climate change, new players are stepping up to take its place. China and India have emerged as the best hope for the world to meet the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement, with both nations currently over performing on their promises to cut carbon emissions [i].<br \><br \>
India, in particular, has made a significant push towards ensuring that its economic transition is not reliant on fossil fuels. India’s renewable energy capacity has grown from 27 GW in 2000 to about 93 GW in December 2016 [ii] It is expected that the capacity will grow to 175 GWs by 2022 [iii]. If successful, India will have increased its renewable energy capacity by 600 percent in the span of two decades.
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Despite these successes, India’s low carbon transition remains a complex matter with many moving parts. There are several issues that need to be addressed if India wishes to successfully meet its future energy demands while continuing to hold to the promise of a low carbon economic transition.
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The majority of these issues are related to India’s power sector. In order to successfully complete a low carbon transition, India must address the financing of renewable energy projects, inefficiencies in the coal sector, and the incorporation of alternative fuel sources. India’s urban transitions must also be addressed, including limiting its urban sprawl, solving its haphazard approach to the transportation sector, and addressing its inadequate waste management processes.
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India’s economic and demographic transition<br \><br \>
India is in the midst of several transformations which are expected to directly impact its power sector and urban areas. Already home to 1.25 billion people, India will soon overtake China as the most populous nation in the world [iv]. Half of the country’s population is under the age of 26 and by 2020, India will be the youngest country in the world, with an expected median age of 29 [v].
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The economic structure of the country is changing as well, with a concerted attempt being made to shift away from India’s traditional dependence on the agricultural and services sectors. The current Indian government has implemented specific policies – such as the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ initiatives, designed to aid in the development of the manufacturing sector. Intended to shift low-skill jobs away from the agricultural sector and bring India’s sizeable informal economy into the fold [vi], the initiatives have been widely lauded.<br \><br \>
The policies are expected to have significant consequences for India’s energy future, however. The amount of energy demanded by the industrial sector is expected to rise annually by 4.4 percent and make up more than 50 percent of all energy consumption in India by 2040 [vii].<br \><br \>
India’s urban population is expected to more than double by 2030. Its cities will be asked to hold more than 300 million more people [ix], which will accelerate the use of modern fuels, lead to a rise in appliance and vehicle ownership, and provide an uptick in demand for construction materials, all of which are expected to increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
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A younger populace, in conjunction with a shift away from the agricultural sector, has understandably led to an increase in India’s urbanisation rate. India’s urban population is expected to more than double by 2030 [viii]. Its cities will be asked to hold more than 300 million more people [ix], which will accelerate the use of modern fuels, lead to a rise in appliance and vehicle ownership, and provide an uptick in demand for construction materials, all of which are expected to increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
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The urban transition also means that there will be a move away from the use of biomass fuels, currently being used for heating and cooking fuel in almost 65 percent of Indian households as of 2013. Electricity and oil are expected to make up more than 60 percent of the energy used in these households by 2040 [x].
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As of 2013, India made up only 5.7 percent of the world’s energy demand, despite having 18 percent of the world’s population. The upcoming shifts in India’s demographics, economic structure and urban makeup are guaranteed to increase India’s energy consumption rapidly, however. Already below the world average with an electrification rate of 78.7 percent [xi], it is estimated that the country’s power system needs to quadruple in size to keep pace with the 600 million new electricity consumers that will be added by 2040. This will require India to add an additional 900 GW of new capacity, as projected by the International Energy Agency (IEA) under its New Policies Scenario [xii].<br \><br \>
In order to meet projected energy demands, India has set ambitious targets to expand its capacity. Having outperformed its 5-year capacity targets by 15 percent, it seems that India is on its way to meeting short term demands [xiii]. India has also reiterated its commitment to a low carbon path towards energy with plans to expand its renewable energy capacity to 175 GW in the medium term.
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The challenge of an Indian low carbon transition<br \><br \>
India’s power sector – A brief overview
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Indian electricity is powered by four sources – coal, renewable energy, natural gas and nuclear energy. Close to 60 percent of India’s power generating capacity comes from coal. Renewable energy accounts for approximately 30 percent of capacity with natural gas and nuclear energy making up the remaining 10 percent.
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Incorporating nuclear power into the energy mix has long been an ambition for the Indian government and it is easy to see why given its emission-free nature and consistent output [xlv]. The current administration has reiterated its commitment to nuclear power with plans to grow capacity to 63 GW by 2032 and supply 25 percent of all of India’s electricity through nuclear power by 2050 [xlvi].
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These ambitions stand in stark contrast with India’s current nuclear power capabilities, however. With 22 reactors providing an installed capacity of 6.7 GW, nuclear power makes up little more than 2 percent of India’s electricity capacity [xlvii]. The amount of energy generated from nuclear power happens to be marginally higher, making up 3.20 percent of total electricity generated in 2016. [xlviii] There have been a number of barriers that have prevented India from scaling up its nuclear power capabilities.
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One of barriers for the nuclear sector is the cost of electricity generated by nuclear power plants in India. A unit of nuclear power currently costs 45 percent more than solar power and close to 100 percent more than coal[xlix], leaving it an economically unviable alternative for consumers. While the nuclear power sector in India is currently publicly owned, the higher consumer prices associated with nuclear power continue to act as a deterrent for private sector entry into the market.<br \><br \>
Another barrier of entry into the Indian nuclear energy sector stems from the lack of domestic manufacturing capability. The inherent complexity and stringent safety requirements in the building of nuclear power plants requires a reliable supply chain of components, as well as stability in the capacity and costs of materials. India’s current manufacturing capabilities only allow for construction of reactors with a capacity of 700 MWs, leading to a reliance on foreign suppliers for any large-scale projects [l].
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A third issue affecting the nuclear energy sector world-wide, ties into the issue of safety and the perceived risks that are associated with nuclear power plants. Large scale disasters such as Fukushima and Chernobyl have eroded public confidence in nuclear power plant safety mechanisms. While the perceived public risk is often much higher than the objective risks that are calculated [li], the political ramifications associated with the building of nuclear power plants tend to act as a disincentive for both nuclear energy corporations and regulators.
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The chief barrier to the scaling up of nuclear power, however, is the start-up costs associated with nuclear power plant construction and the resulting financing requirements. With cost estimates for new power plant construction ranging anywhere from $2 billion to $9 billion [lii], nuclear power faces many of the same investment barriers associated with renewable energy, as well as additional nuances specific to the sector. One such disincentive comes in the form of stringent legal clauses in India which hold investors liable for all costs associated in a disaster scenario.
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Large construction delays, cost overruns, the possibility of a large-scale catastrophe, and extensive start-up costs have made nuclear a high-risk proposition for any investor regardless of the country.
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Issues within the electrical grid structure<br \><br \>
The inefficiencies that are prevalent within other parts of the India power sector, can also been seen in India’s electrical infrastructure. In 2012, India generated 1130 TWh of electricity, making it the third-largest electricity producer in the world after China and the United States. India’s electricity consumption during that period, however, was only 870 TWh, which meant that 23 percent of the electricity that was generated during the year was lost [liii]. This served to further exacerbate the coal and natural gas sectors inefficiency issues leading to increased levels of GHG emissions.
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The major reason for these inefficiencies in power delivery is power theft. This is often accomplished by the illegal tapping of existing lines, through meter fraud and unmetered usage by end-consumers. The consequences of power theft include increased usage of coal and natural gas for power generation resulting in increased carbon emissions.
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Managing India’s urban transition<br \><br \>
India’s rapid urbanisation gives the country an excellent opportunity to mitigate transportation and solid waste related emissions through careful planning. One solution aimed at managing future urban sprawl that has been implemented by the Indian government has been the use of urban master plans for all Indian cities. The central government has made it a legal requirement for all Indian cities and towns to file a legal document mapping the growth of the urban centre over the next 20 to 25 years on a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform.
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While this is an important step in managing urban sprawl, there are more concrete steps that can be taken. One possibility could include the passing of legislature requiring urban centres to obtain construction approval from an urban climate committee. Another policy solution aimed at reducing the urban sprawl could be the commissioning of architects and urban planners familiar with green strategies to manage future urban centre construction.
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The government has also put forth ambitious plans for the expansion of its public transport systems. Studies regarding the viability of shifting the current public transport systems to an electricity-driven system are currently underway by the Indian government, although further work needs to be done on the impact this will have on reducing emissions. Additionally, a regional rapid rail transit spanning almost 100 kilometres across the states of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, as well as a city-based light rail transit system in Delhi, are in their beginning stages. A possible fantastical solution that has been proposed to the Indian government has been the construction of a national hyper loop rail.
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Although these solutions will help in mitigating future carbon emissions, further solutions are required. Stricter road code polices and the enforcement of said road code policies could help with transport related emissions while also providing co-benefits in the form of air pollution reduction. The capture and use of the methane gas produced by sewage plants and landfills can significantly reduce GHG emissions while also providing the co-benefit of generating electricity [lxxvi]. In order to fund these projects, matchmaking services between growing cities and investors seeking climate friendly infrastructure projects could be built.
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Conclusion<br \><br \>
As can be seen, there are several challenges that India still faces as it attempts to conduct its low carbon transition. These challenges include, but are not limited to, obtaining funding for renewable energy projects, resolving inefficiencies in the coal sector, building capacity and infrastructure in the natural gas and renewable energy sectors and proper management of India’s upcoming urban transition.
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It should be acknowledged that India has many opportunities to help conduct the transition as well. Policy shifts designed to increase private capital funding for renewable energy projects, technological shifts aimed at solving the inefficiencies in the coal sector, and updated methodologies for the management of urban sprawl in India’s growing cities could be the key to ensuring that India is the first emerging economy in the world to manage a successful low carbon economic transition.
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In acknowledging the complexities associated with India’s low carbon transition, it is also important to contextualize the transition against India’s broader development goals. India, with a GDP per capita of $1,598 [lxxvii] and 12.8 percent of its population living in extreme poverty [lxxviii] is still very much an emerging economy and as such, should prioritise social development and economic growth.
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Despite the importance of meeting broader development goals, an impending demographic shift, rapid urbanisation and a shifting economic makeup, India has made a substantial commitment to upholding its global moral obligations. As of 2016, India generates a higher percentage of its power from renewable energy than the United States. According to the IEA’s New Policies Scenario[lxxix], India will continue to remain below the world average in carbon emissions per capita for the next 35 years. Through both its actions and words, India has shown that it remains committed to a low carbon transition despite its development and economic needs. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the world will follow in India’s footsteps.balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-63233602318944424882023-12-02T04:53:00.000-08:002023-12-02T04:53:36.124-08:00Guyana : An Economic Miracle in South AmericaGuyana: An Economic Miracle or a Short-Term Mirage In Latin America?<br \><br \>
The South American country’s economy is expected to see the region’s fastest growth following the discovery of huge oil reserves, but which presents a huge challenge for its government
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Bloomberg Línea — The dirt that two years ago covered most of the avenues of Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, has recently turned to asphalt; however, the city’s architecture still remains Victorian and without traces of restoration, and surrounds a population with few signs of economic improvement.
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VIEW +
Dispute Between Guyana and Venezuela Over Resource-Rich Esequiba Enters New Phase
The two countries dispute the ownership and control of Guyana Esequiba, a strip of land rich in oil, forestry and possibly mineral resources in a case being overseen by the International Court of Justice<br \><br \>
Guyana’s economy, one of the poorest in Latin America, is now projected to be the fastest growing in the last two years. The upturn is attributed to the oil sector, which in the first half of 2023 grew by 98.4%, and poses a challenge to the response capacity of the small country in dispute with Venezuela.
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After a GDP advance of 57.8% last year, according to the World Bank, the economic activity in the country of 800,000 inhabitants could grow by up to 29% this year. However, this growth rate does not resemble the figures of 2014, just a year before an oil field was discovered 193km offshore by ExxonMobil and Hess Corporation in 2015. In that year, GDP stood at about $4.28 billion after rising 0.7% over the previous year.
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Meanwhile, 35.1% of the population live in extreme poverty, with an estimated income of one dollar a day, according to NGO Humanium. And although the data is currently uncertain, the government’s official discourse highlights the efforts to eradicate poverty, thus revealing that the problem has not yet been solved.
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The Guyanese capital, which has some 350,000 inhabitants and is the largest city in the small country, is an X-ray of this. Travelers still compare it with the poorest areas in Latin America, as well as with localities in the interior of other countries where capitals do have more progress.
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Guyana’s GDP per capita has already reached almost $19,000 (at current prices), and commercially recoverable oil reserves are expected to exceed 11 billion barrels, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Economists have advised the government led by President Irfaan Ali not to repeat mistakes of its peers in the management of the oil industry.
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“Guyana must seek to strengthen its institutions, create savings and investment mechanisms. It must try to ensure that oil has a positive and sustained impact on its economy”, Venezuelan economist Luis Oliveros said in April of this year.
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One of Latin America’s smallest countries could see 100% growth of its gross domestic product by end-2023 compared with two years earlier
Estimates for the Caribbean nation’s economy remain positive, and the Guyanese government has managed to identify the economic diversification it requires, according to the World Bank representative for Guyana and Suriname, Diletta Doretti, in order to avoid falling into the so-called ‘Dutch syndrome’. However, the projects for human development and the boosting of non-oil revenues have not been detailed.
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According to people familiar with the situation, the country’s political high command is focused on the tense situation developing on the border with Venezuela over the Essequibo territory and the mobilization of Guyana’s troops.
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Living in Guyana<br \><br \>
Steven works as a welder in one of the popular markets in Georgetown, and also generates income from other trades, which pay up to 20,000 Guyanese dollars, the equivalent of $100 a week. With the sum of all his activities he recently managed to acquire a vehicle.
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The minimum wage in Guyana is $287 per month. Rents for an apartment in the city center can range from $1,400 to as much as $4,000.
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“You can’t just work from one thing, you have to work from several things,” Steven tells Bloomberg Línea. “Food is not that expensive, but rent and utilities do cost, it’s expensive here in the capital, not like back in Venezuela. The electricity bill sometimes comes in at 29,000 ($139) and water at 8,000 ($39) while internet costs 2,800 ($14).”
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People living near border areas have reported to international agencies about the intermittency of public services. Some rely on the rain to collect water in cans, pots and plastic containers.
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Gabriel Herrera, a Venezuelan influencer who visited Georgetown told Bloomberg Línea that access to services in the hotel where he was able to stay was basic, without great luxuries or modernization. “Public transportation was nil, there are no well-defined stops or an advanced transportation system. The easiest way was by cab.”
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In his journey from Georgetown to the Essequibo sector (territory in dispute with Venezuela), he was able to see that the dynamics and behavior of the country is the same. “The structures you see are the same. Everything looks and seems as if it were just another place in Guyana, there is no difference in the journey to the crossing sector in the disputed zone with Venezuela”, he said.
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Social conditions<br \><br \>
According to the UN, between 25,000 and 30,000 Venezuelan immigrants have fled the crisis in their country to tried their luck in Guyana. Several thousand live in Essequibo, according to a report by the EFE news agency. Previously, the situation was the opposite, and many Guyanese emigrated to Venezuela in search of a better life. Currently, 55% of Guyanese are living abroad.
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As described by the NGO Humanium, the high rate of school desertion in Guyana is also worrying, since children are forced to work as a consequence of the precarious economic situation of their families.
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In addition, there is another particular phenomenon that has to do with the indigenous peoples. “A large number of children, mostly Amerindian, live in remote areas, so they are unable to attend school regularly. As a result, this has led to growing disparities between the regions in the interior of the country and the rest of the state in terms of education,” says a Humanium report.
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The mortality rate is also alarming, and is 33% among children, a consequence of a large number of malaria cases, especially among Amerindian children, as well as the high number of young people suffering from malnutrition or anemia.
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According to an article in The Los Angeles Times, Guyana has $1.6 billion in oil revenues as of May this year, and as a result the government has launched infrastructure projects such as the construction of 12 hospitals, seven hotels, schools, two major highways, its first deepwater port, and a $1.9 billion project to generate electricity from natural gas that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told AP will double Guyana’s energy generation capacity and cut high electricity bills in half.
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“While the projects have created jobs, it is rare for Guyanese to work directly in the oil industry. Ocean-bottom drilling work is highly technical, and the country offers no such training,” according to the article.
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A lack of experience<br \><br \>
Experts are concerned that Guyana lacks the expertise, legal and regulatory framework to handle the expected influx of wealth, and warn that democratic institutions could be weakened as a result.
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“Global experience has shown that rising expectations of oil and gas revenues can lead to overspending, over-indebtedness or excessive depletion of sovereign funds in reshaping economic policy,” Diletta Doretti, the World Bank’s representative for the country tells Bloomberg Línea.
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Guyana, which remains a poor country despite having accumulated significant fiscal and external reserves with the start of oil production in 2019, has sought to protect oil revenues with the Natural Resources Fund Act created in 2021. Still, it is critical for it to develop a medium-term strategy for economic diversification and growth in the non-oil sector, Doretti said.
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“Guyana’s political instability raises concerns that the country is unprepared for its newfound wealth without a plan to manage the new revenues and equitably distribute the financial benefits,” according to a report by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which acknowledged the country’s deep ethnic rivalries.
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The Guyanese government, meanwhile, has been alert in recent months to the possibility of an armed conflict with Venezuela. The government’s defense of the Esequiba territory, an area of 160,000 square kilometers rich in minerals and natural wealth, as well as offshore oil reserves, whose sovereignty has been under discussion for almost two centuries, has been escalating.
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“The government of Guyana reserves the right to carry out economic development activities in any part of its sovereign territory or in any corresponding maritime territory,” President Ali said in a statement released in September after Venezuela questioned the country’s plan to allow bidding for oil blocks, which it deemed illegal.
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balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-16799605545495170902023-12-02T04:44:00.000-08:002023-12-02T04:44:50.267-08:00The Surprising benefits of Corruption in an Economy<iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s4C1xiyGaGs?si=jx7plUEWDrbGR30C" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>balajihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01719552442132976806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13862323.post-27054282306652869032023-11-26T05:28:00.000-08:002023-11-26T05:28:22.898-08:00Clippers mavs nbathe live scoring percentages while they shoot is just amazing and it would probably show the true impact of analytics in game strategy
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