Daily Archives: July 9, 2017

New virtual reality app lets you visit 16th century Edinburgh – Livemint

Posted: July 9, 2017 at 12:14 pm

London: Scientists have developed a new virtual reality (VR) app that enables users to see Scotlands capital city Edinburgh as it may have been in the 16th century.

The smartphone app, developed by researchers from the University of St Andrews in the UK lets visitors explore the city, Edinburgh castle and its surrounding landscape.

It is striking how the cityscape is both familiar and different from the city today. Instead of the new town there stands a great loch yet the castle stands guard over the city much as it does now, said Sarah Kennedy, digital designer of the University of St Andrewss spinout company Smart History.

Virtual Time Binoculars: Edinburgh 1544 provides a unique window into the capital around the time of the birth of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Visitors will experience the digital reconstruction through a virtual reality app that hosts a range of virtual reality headset usage, as well as a web resource.

We intend for it to be the first of many Virtual Time Binocular apps with depictions of St Andrews and Perth already in the pipeline, said Alan Miller, director of Smart History.

We have had interest from across Europe and Latin America, so we expect our virtual time travel platform to go global, said Miller.

Using their mobile phones and VR headsets, users will become virtual time-travellers as they are immersed in historic scenes, stereoscopic video and 360 degree images.

Visitors will be able to explore present day St Giles Kirk and the Grassmarket as they learn more about their 16th century equivalents in parallel. Guided virtual tours of the Royal Mile will allow virtual time-travellers to compare Edinburghs past to its present.

The app allows users to view the reconstructions either in full screen mode or through more immersive virtual reality mode. Hotspots highlight the scenes with more facts and historical images for users to learn about the location.

The digital reconstruction is inspired by a drawing created by the English military engineer Richard Lee, who accompanied the Earl of Hertfords May 1544 expedition.

Lees drawing, now held by the British Library, is one of the oldest surviving depictions of Edinburgh, and became the defining English impression of Scotlands capital.

St Andrews researchers supplemented the information from Lees plan with archaeological evidence, 16th-century written sources, and information about the geography of the modern city, to create an updated reconstruction of Edinburgh.

The Virtual Time Binoculars project is ground breaking for digital reconstruction because it uses technology already in peoples pockets, said Iain Oliver, head of Systems for Smart History.

We have developed a software framework which will enable us to continue to send people back in time, Oliver said.

First Published: Sun, Jul 09 2017. 01 59 PM IST

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‘Liu Xiaobo should be a free man’: Ai Weiwei joins calls to release dying dissident – The Guardian

Posted: at 12:13 pm

Ai Weiwei accused western governments of failing to speak up for activists such as Liu for fear of damaging economic ties with Beijing. Photograph: Matej Divizna/Getty Images

The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has added his voice to growing calls for China to release its most famous political prisoner, the critically ill Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

Speaking for the first time about the plight of his longtime friend, who was recently diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer while serving an 11-year jail term, Ai urged Beijing to immediately free Liu, who was jailed in 2009 for his role in a pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08.

I think the government should release him. This is a historic mistake, Ai told the Guardian from Berlin, where he now lives.

The government should just release him and have a better record because this is going to be remembered by the whole world what they are doing.

They [must] admit that this was a horrible mistake to sacrifice the best people in this nation the best minds in this nation and to put them in such a horrible situation. That is what they continue to do now and it is unacceptable.

Ai was speaking as Chinese president Xi Jinping came under intense pressure to let Liu, who doctors have said is close to death, leave the country for medical treatment.

Beijing has so far rebuffed calls from countries including the United States for the 61-year-old activist to be allowed to travel overseas, accusing them of meddling in its internal affairs.

Chinese doctors at the hospital where Liu has been receiving treatment since being granted medical parole several weeks ago claimed he was too unwell to be moved. However, that claim was contradicted on Sunday by two foreign specialists who were allowed to visit Liu in hospital, where he is reportedly under police guard.

While a degree of risk always exists in the movement of any patient, both physicians believe Liu can be safely transported with appropriate medical evacuation care and support, the German and US doctors said in a statement, adding that their hospitals were ready to offer Liu the best care possible.

That announcement sparked an immediate outcry, as friends, supporters and activists demanded Lius complete release.

Jared Genser, a US lawyer acting for Liu, said that if Xi refused to let the dying dissident seek potentially life-extending medical treatment abroad he would be viewed as having deliberately cut short a mans life.

My view is that if Xi doesnt do that then it will be viewed publicly as an extraordinarily callous and weak position for China to put itself in, Genser, who is known for his work with prisoners of conscience, including Aung San Suu Kyi, told the Guardian.

China can show its strength to the world and its security in its own governance by not being afraid of one man who has dared repeatedly to stand up to the one-party system, he added.

I hope and pray that we can succeed. We dont have a lot of time quite clearly so it is going to be a very difficult challenge. But I hope that President Xi will see that its in China interests to not be viewed as not only silencing a man but wilfully and intentionally shortening his life.

In a statement, a group of Chinese supporters said the doctors statement conclusively rebutted the official propaganda that it is unsafe for Liu Xiaobo to be transported overseas.

Liu Xiaobos life is now in imminent danger Any delay and obstruction are no different from a drawn-out murder, it said.

Amnesty International also appealed to Xi for Lius release. There is only one person in China that has the authority to rule on the fate of Liu Xiaobo and that is Xi Jinping, said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty Internationals East Asia director.

Ai, who has known Liu since the 1980s, said his friend, who Beijing claims tried to overthrow the Communist party, was unjustly imprisoned and now deserved the right to decide where he wanted to spend his final days.

He absolutely should be a free man and a free man should have a choice to make all the choices by himself, he said.

He should not have been sentenced. He should be completely out of jail, released without any conditions. He should be a free man, then he should make a free judgment about where to stay and where to get medical care, and who he wants to be associated with.

Ai also attacked what he described as the hypocrisy of western governments, which he accused of feigning concern for activists such as Liu, but had failed to speak up for them for fear of damaging economic ties with Beijing. To me, it is disgusting. For any Chinese [who] looks at that I mean, my God, just for the money, he said.

There are so many people, lawyers, or human rights defenders or activists, in jail, and many of them in secret detention without trial for years and they are all being mistreated, Ai said.

The artist accused western politicians of caring only about striking lucrative deals with Chinas authoritarian rulers.

Each of those deals sacrifices someone like Xiaobo. So dont pretend, when Liu Xiaobo is dying, or Liu Xiaobo [is in] such difficult circumstances, dont pretend anybody is innocent.

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Get smart: How artificial intelligence is changing our lives – CNBC

Posted: at 12:13 pm

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a real and growing part of our lives.

From voice-controlled assistants to online ordering to self driving cars in development, AI is the brains behind computer software. As it improves computers, making them faster and smarter, is this technology a threat?

"I wouldn't see it as a threat, necessarily," Recode reporter April Glaser told CNBC's "On the Money" in an interview. laser covers robots, drones and other smart machines for the technology news website.

"But artificial intelligence programs do know more than you or I do, particularly when it comes to specific areas."

One example is in medicine, where AI technology is helping doctors recognize cancerous tumors.

"If something has artificial intelligence in it that means it has software in it that allows the computer program to do something on its own without a human pressing a button the entire time."

Glaser said using AI, companies are "able to anticipate behavior by drawing on your past behavior. They require a tremendous amount of data that they process, these software algorithms, in order to determine what you might want next."

She added that "there are all sorts of ways these predictive algorithms can and have already creeped into our lives."

While shopping on Amazon, the site might suggest you may want a flashlight to go with that tent you've bought. On Netflix, it knows what movies you might enjoy.

"So if you typically go for romantic comedies, then it's going to suggest romantic comedy next based on your behavior," she told CNBC.

Computers continue to improve because, Glaser said, "they are getting smarter because the more data that you feed it the more refined the results will become."

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Kiwi startup Soul Machines reveals latest artificial intelligence creation, Rachel – Newshub

Posted: at 12:13 pm

A Kiwi company developing artificial intelligence has delivered its latest digital human, called Rachel.

Rachel can see, hear and respond to you.

She is an avatar created by two-time Oscar winner Mark Sagar, who worked on the blockbuster movie of the same name.

Mr Sagar, of Auckland-based company Soul Machines, says his aim is to make man socialise with machine, by putting a human face on artificial intelligence.

"So what we are doing with Soul Machines is trying to build the central nervous system for humanising this kind of computer," he says.

A favourite theme of Hollywood, the interaction between human and computer is already here in much simpler forms, from Siri on your iPhone to virtual assistants in your home.

China's third-largest technology company Baidu has just announced artificial intelligence is its major focus, including driverless cars.

Soul Machines' goal is just as complex - emotions. The startup's prototype was Baby X, which gets upset and needs reassurance when Mr Sagar hides, and can also recognise pictures.

The technology's advancing so quickly, a later version helps people in Australia with disabilities.

And the version after that is so detailed it has a warning on its Youtube video - this is not real.

Newshub.

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Maradona, the mafia and immortality: three decades on from Napoli’s Holy Grail – The42

Posted: at 12:11 pm

Image: Peter Robinson

THERES A NEAPOLITAN phrase A carta vicino o fuoco sappiccia which literally means that paper close to a fire will inevitably go up in flames.

Of course, Diego Maradonas seven-year stint with Napoli did end tumultuously butamidst the cocaine and the mafia and the bastard son, there was a multitude of success too.

The city of Naples gritty, tough, uncompromising was and very much remains his spiritual home. He fled, in disgrace, 26 years ago but earlier this week, at a glitzy ceremony where he was granted honorary citizenship of the city, it was like he had never left.

Its understandable.

Maradona, after all, gave Napoli immortality.

He arrived in 1984 having tired of the endless kickings he received on the pitches around Spain. Memorably, his last appearance for Barcelona came in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Club the league champions which culminated in a post-game free-for-all at the Santiago Bernabeu after Maradona retaliated to some verbal abuse with physical retribution.

With relations already strained between him and the club on account of his injury problems and the teams on-field struggles, there was certainly no going back after such a high-profile humiliation for Barcelona footballs most expensive signing and marquee name instigating a mass brawl in front of the King of Spain and millions of TV viewers.

When Maradona touched down in Naples for another world record amount (5m is the oft-quoted figure but in his superb biography of Maradona, Hand of God, author Jimmy Burns says it was, in fact, double that amount), it was treated like the Second Coming of Christ.

But Maradona would not just resurrect himself but, instead, an entire community. His signing became a symbol. Treated with disrespect and contempt by those in the north of the country, Naples was seen as the runt of the litter. To many in Italy it was a seedy, grim, unforgiving place. While it was left in the shadows in terms of politics and economics, it had struggled to compete on the football pitch also. Prior to Maradonas arrival in 1984, nine of the previous 10 championships had been won by teams based in just two cities Milan and Turin.

So, even when there were whispers about a possible deal for Maradona, supporters couldnt contain their level of excitement and anticipation. It would send a message to the rest of Italy.

When Barcelona demanded an extra couple of hundred grand during negotiations, thousands of local fans turned up a Naples building city to hand over their contribution to the pot. Within a day, the money was raised and not long after Maradona was unveiled.

Still, his time with Napoli is largely associated with the Camorra the citys mafia organisation. They were intrigued by what Maradonas signing could do for them: an increase in ticket sales (60,000 season tickets were sold for Maradonas debut campaign) would see exponential growth in touting a staple of the Camorra diet while there was also the economic value of Maradona coming to Naples and how it affected the Camorras other interests. Finally, they also took control of Maradona-related merchandise in the city. According to Burns, they made Maradonas agent, Jorge Cyterszpiler an offer he couldnt refuse.

Source: Peter Robinson

In many ways, it was an atmosphere that Maradona revelled in. In many ways, he saw the local gangsters as mirror images of himself. They had come from humble beginnings and graduated to positions of influence and power. They were rich and enjoyed nice things. Maradona slotted in quite effortlessly.

And, relatively quickly, he found his feet on the pitch too. There was an eighth-place finish in 1985 but Maradona still managed 14 goals and Napoli were only 10 points fromunfashionable champions Hellas Verona.The following season they were better and finished third. Maradona hit double-figures again before heading to Mexico and captaining Argentina to World Cup success.

This was him in his pomp.

There is a neat geographical metaphor regarding Naples vicinity to Mount Vesuvius. Locals get a daily reminder of the threat however inexplicable of eruption and the possibility of destruction. Maradona is the personification of that. But, like the Camorra example, he seemed to take great comfort from the chaos, like it was reassuring. If things were quiet for too long, Maradona would get suspicious. The cyclical explosions became normal.

So, as he excelled with Napoli, his private life was in disarray. His marriage to childhood sweetheart Claudia was falling apart and for a four-month period between December 1985 and March 1986, hed had a fling with a 20-year-old local woman named Cristiana Sinagra.

Source: SVEN SIMON

But when she became pregnant with his child, everything changed. The relationship ended, Maradona ignored his responsibilities, concentrated on the World Cup preparations and gleefully repaired things with Claudia.

The child a son- was born in September 1986 and Cristiana called him Diego Armando after his father. Quickly, the media latched onto the story and Cristiana was open with the press. She had nothing to hide and had been shunned by Maradona. Publicly, he lied, believing ignorance would be bliss.

About this I know nothing absolutely nothing, he said.

It would take five long years and a legal case for Maradona to change his tune.

By that stage, he had been forced into exile and his time with Napoli had come to an end owing to a 14-month suspended sentence for cocaine possession. Simultaneously, he had been banned from football for 15 months and both his professional and personal lives were in free-fall.

Still, if the paper ultimately went up in flames, Maradona had exceeded expectations in Naples.

1987 was the beginning of an unprecedented period of dominance for the club. Maradona scored 10 times as Napoli lost just two games in the entire league season to be crowned Italian champions for the very first time. They had already claimed a Coppa Italia and the celebrations were like nothing the city had ever seen.

Source: Peter Robinson

Everything stopped for a week as people partied in the streets. Sleep was negotiable. Perhaps no one really wanted to wake up from the dream.

Least of all Maradona himself.

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A Memoir of Chronic Fatigue Illustrates the Failures of Medical Research – The New Yorker

Posted: at 12:11 pm

Fifteen years ago, Julie Rehmeyer was a science journalist leading an active, outdoorsy life in New Mexico. She ran marathons, biked regularly, and taught mathematics and classics at St. Johns College. Just outside Santa Fe, on a parcel of streamside land, she had even built her own housea straw-bale construction shaded by ponderosas, meant for the family she hoped to have one day. Then, over a period of a few years, Rehmeyer lost most of her strength, endurance, and confidence, along with the ability to live a normal life. A bike ride left her bedridden. A trip to the grocery store found her using the shopping cart as a walker. At home, she could make it to her bedroom only by climbing the stairs backwards, scooting herself up a step at a time. By 2006, she was no longer able to exercise, and needed to rest whenever she wasnt working.

Through the Shadowlands , Rehmeyers new book, chronicles her struggles since then. She attempted years of conventional and alternative medicine, moved to a different state, broke up with her partner, and, finally, cobbled together a functional life. Her condition, which affects an estimated million other Americans, goes by various nameschronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis, and systemic exertion intolerance disease (S.E.I.D.), among others. (S.E.I.D. seems to me the most descriptive term, so Ill use it here.) The Mayo Clinic defines it as a complicated disorder characterized by extreme fatigue that cant be explained by any underlying medical condition.

Rehmeyers writing is full of verve and curiosity, and shes warmly attuned to how her plight is, in fact, familiar: all of us become weaker as we age, at times gradually and at times suddenly, and along the way we adapt ourselves to fit our diminished capabilities. Still, her story is a biting indictment of how we approach diseases that cant be reduced to tidy pathologies or a uniform set of symptoms. In a way, science failed Rehmeyer. Years of clinical studies supplied little insight into her affliction, and prescribed therapies had minimal effect. Part of the issue is that S.E.I.D. is a slippery condition with no known cure, but the deeper problem lies in the methodology of clinical trials, and in the premises of evidence-based medicine.

The most prominent study of S.E.I.D. is the PACE trial, an experiment conducted on six hundred and forty-one patients in the United Kingdom. The study was published in 2011, in the English medical journal The Lancet , and reported improvements in fatigue and physical function under two treatments: cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy. These findings were used to reinforce recommendations by Britains National Health Service. But, in the years since, the PACE trial has been sharply criticized by both scientists and patients. One of their chief objections is that the PACE research team, while collecting its data, changed the main metric of recovery from objective measures, such as fitness and employment status, to subjective ones, such as the patients self-evaluations over time. As Rehmeyer points out, this meant that the study could claim recovery even when a patients walking ability was considerably worse than that of a healthy elderly adult. (The PACE pool had an average age of forty.)

The studys conclusions were also easy to misinterpret. In a given trial, theres always variation: some people get better, some get worse, and others improve on some measures and decline on others. With S.E.I.D., where the treatments are speculative and the condition itself is not clearly defined, it makes sense that cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy would help at least some subset of people. But we should be careful when using averages to make inferences about causes and effects on individuals. S.E.I.D. is a diverse conditionindeed, it could very well be a set of conditions, amenable to various treatments but lumped under a common diagnosis. The success of some strategies for some percentage of people does not at all contradict the idea that many others need a lot more. As Simon Wessely, a contributor to the PACE study and a pillar of the English medical establishment, noted, there were a significant number of patients who did not improve with these treatments . . . PACE or no PACE , we need more research.

The controversy over the PACE study reflects a larger crisis in public health. Traditionally, the controlled trial has been considered the gold standard of medical evidence: you gather a bunch of patients and randomly assign some to a control group, which receives no treatment, and some to an experimental group, which does. You then compare the outcomes, and if the difference is large enough, exceeding the bounds of chance or natural variation, the result is said to be statistically significant. In designing the experiment, you want enough people in your study that you are likely to find a statistically significant difference; this is called high power.

There are two key problems with this approach. First, what happens when a treatment helps some patients and not others? Average improvements are, and should be, relevant to organizations such as the N.H.S., but only individual or subgroup analyses can reveal the full range of effective therapies. This, however, leads us to the second problem: if you limit your investigation to a smaller group, then it will have less statistical power. The conclusions drawn from studying subgroups are inherently noisier and likelier to misleada fact that doesnt pair well with researchers desire for snappy conclusions and clear-cut results. Though the controlled trial nicely demonstrates the efficacy of strong treatments on well-defined conditions, it falls apart, from a statistical perspective, when applied to a phenomenon that, in Rehmeyers words, science doesnt understand.

For conditions like S.E.I.D., then, the better approach may be to gather data from people suffering in the wild, combining the careful methodology of a study like PACE with the lived experience of thousands of people. Though most may be less eloquent than Rehmeyer, each may have his or her own potential path to recovery.

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A surgeon aiming to do the first human head transplant says – Yahoo – Yahoo Health

Posted: at 12:09 pm

(Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, right, says he will complete the world's first full-body transplant this year.OOOM Agency) To Sergio Canavero, "Frankenstein" is scientific inspiration.

The Italian neurosurgeon told Business Insider that Mary Shelley's classic novel convinced him that he could complete the world's first full-body transplant. Canavero claims he'll complete the procedure on a human next fall in China.

Not only did the book reveal a missing piece in his plan to swap the heads of two humans, Canavero said, it also provided the justification for the dangerous procedure.

Just as the fictional Doctor Victor Frankenstein discovered how to give life to inanimate matter, Canavero aims to cheat death. The surgeon envisions a future in which healthy people could opt for full-body transplants as a way to liv longer, eventually even putting their heads on clone bodies.

"Im into life extension," he told Business Insider on a recent Skype call. "Life extension and breaching the wall between life and death."

In fact, Canavero said that in doing the procedure he wants to "create a near death experience actually a full death experience and see what comes next."

(Netflix/The Discovery) As Canaveroexplained it, the full-body transplant will involve going into the spinal cord of someone with a spinal injury and cutting out the injured segments of the cord. The donor's cord would be cut to perfectly replace the missing portion in the injured person, and then the two healthy stumps would be fused together.Canavero plans to attachthecords using polyethylene glycol (PEG), a common laboratory tool used to encourage cells to fuse. Canavero simply refers to it as "glue."

He said he will soon complete this transplant procedure withtwo humans a Chinese national who remains anonymous and a brain-dead organ donor. The head of the former will be attached to the body of the latter.

The full procedure is called HEAVEN, short for head anastomosis venture.

Canavero said that he'd been studying the concept of this full-body transplant for more than a decade beforehe picked up Shelley's book. After reading it, he said he realized his planned procedure lackeda critical component: electricity.

The surgeon has not elaborated on the role electricity will play in the operation, howeverJames FitzGerald, a consulting neurosurgeon at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider that PEG is can be paired with "large pulses of electricity" to coax fibers into merging. Still, FitzGeraldmaintains that Canavero's plans touse it to fuse two spinal cords are unrealistic.

"It's just too much of a jump," FitzGerald said.

Canavero doesn't think so.

"Electricity has the power to speed up regrowth," he said. "Bing bang bong you have the solution" to spinal cord fusion.

Canavero isn't pursuing this unprecedented medical feat tocure people with life-threatening injuries,despite the fact that spinal cord injuries affect12,000 Americans every year. Instead, hewants the operation to serve as a way toexplore his own ideas about life, death, and human consciousness (though he says "it would be a waste" not to help injured patients as well).

"I'm not religious but I don't believe consciousness can be created in the brain. The brain is a filter," he said, adding that the word anastomosis combines the Greek roots "ana," meaning to place upon, and "stoma," or mouth.

"Like a kiss," he said.

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(CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics)

Canavero's evidence that the procedure will work rests on a handful of animal experiments that many experts say were nowhere near satisfactory.

In the first of these experiments, Canavero claimed to have severed then reconnected the spinal cord of a dog. Less than a year later, he published a paper detailing how he created a series of two-headed rodents. In June 2017, the surgeon said he severed the spinal cords of a group of mice and then reattached them using polyethylene glycol.

Canavero says these trials are proofthathe and his team figured out what's often considered the holy grail of spinal cord research: fusion.

"We have so much data that confirms this in mice, rats, and soon you will see the dogs," he said.

However, many experts don't buy hisclaims, citing a lack of evidence. And it's important to keep in mind that the fate of the Chinese man who will be involved in the first procedure hangs in the balance.

"I simply don't think the reports of joining spinal cords together are credible," James FitzGerald, a consulting neurosurgeon at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider.

Robert Brownstone, a professor of neurosurgery and the Brain Research Trust Chair of Neurosurgery at the University College London, agreed.

"Many great scientific ideas are born out of crazy ideas that turned out to be right so we can't completely turn a blind eye to this, but there has to be some mechanistic aspect to it, which I'm not seeing," Brownstone said.

Others, including University of Cambridge neurosurgery professor John Pickard, suggested the journal in which Canavero's studies were published was also a red flag.

"I just don't think he's done the science," Pickard said.

NOW WATCH: Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk

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Q & A: Kevin Kwan and his world of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ – Press Herald

Posted: at 12:09 pm

I dont know about you, but I gobbled all three volumes of Kevin Kwans gossipy, name-droppy and wickedly funny Crazy Rich Asians trilogy as if they were popcorn. (Really fresh, still-warm popcorn, with that good European butter but I digress.) The novels, set among three intergenerational and ultrarich Chinese families and peppered with hilarious explanatory footnotes, are set mostly in Singapore but flit easily from one glamorous world city to another, with Young family heir Nick and his American-born girlfriend (later wife) Rachel as our levelheaded tour guides.

The final volume in the trilogy, Rich People Problems, is here to the chagrin of those who arent quite ready to say goodbye to Nick and Rachel and their irresistible world. (The previous books were Crazy Rich Asians, published in 2013, and China Rich Girlfriend in 2015.) Kwan, born and raised in Singapore but now settled in New York, answered some questions via email about the novel, the upcoming movie of Crazy Rich Asians (which began filming last month), and his many inspirations, including Dynasty.

Kevin Kwan Photo by Giancarlo Ciampini/Courtesy of Doubleday

Q: Did you always conceive this as a trilogy? (Meaning, any chance of another book in the series?)

A: From the very beginning, even before I started writing the first book, I knew I wanted to make it a trilogy. I knew it would take three books to get the full story out, and though I really need a break from the Young clan right now, nothing is ever definitive and if readers truly want more, they just might get it.

I had the entire story arc of the three books more or less in my head. I knew where I wanted to go with each of the characters, although the journey itself was a meandering one. As I began to write, my characters really would speak to me and take me on rides filled with unexpected twists and turns.

Q: Your footnotes are delightful. How did they evolve?

A: When I began the first book, I realized that there were just so many things that needed translating or further explanation. But I felt it would interrupt the flow to put them into the text, so I tried experimenting with footnotes. In the beginning, the footnotes were very formal and a bit dry. So I started trying to make them more humorous, and the idea really took shape. I should note that the voice of the footnotes isnt me its actually all done in (Nicks cousin) Olivers voice!

Q: I love big family sagas, complete with family trees to keep everyone straight. Do you have any favorites in that genre that inspired you?

A: I love Anthony Trollopes Dr. Thorne and his Palliser Series, Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited, as well as everything Jane Austen has written. I have to admit that being a child of the 80s, I was also inspired by family sagas on TV: Dynasty, Falcon Crest and more recently Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones.

Q: Whats been the reaction from your family in Singapore?

A: Each of my characters is inspired by many people sometimes a mix of family, friends and people Ive just observed over the years. My family in Singapore is so big and sprawling; the reactions have been so diverse. Some love my books, some are completely baffled by them, and one relative actually flipped through my second novel, China Rich Girlfriend, as if it was a rotting piece of fish and said, Kevin, I cant think of anyone in Singapore who would want to read this.

Q: Youve spoken of doing a lot of nonfiction reading as research. Can you share a few titles?

A: Sure. Forgotten Armies: Britains Asia Empire and the War With Japan, The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave, Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang, and The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voigt, just to name a few.

Q: The books are full of amazing details of life among the Singapore ultrarich such as plastic surgery for pet fish. Do you have a favorite from the books? Are any of them made up?

A: I love all my crazy details, so its really hard to play favorites. One detail I do love in the new book concerns the two Thai aristocrats that married into Catherine Young Aakaras family (Nicks aunt who lives in Thailand): Its mentioned that the two ladies only eat shellfish, and this was directly inspired by a story a chef once told me about having to prepare an entire meal for a Thai princess whose entire diet consisted of shellfish. NOTHING is made up In my books.

Q: I would like to be Astrid (Nicks glamorous, preternaturally poised cousin). Thats not really a question, just a statement.

A: Not only do I get [that] all the time, I get sent poetry and artwork inspired by Astrid from her fans, and Im told that quite a few women in Singapore and Hong Kong have gone around claiming to be the inspiration for Astrid!

Q: Tell me about the movie! (Fun fact: Screenwriter Pete Chiarelli is a Tacoma native and a University of Washington alum.)

A: I did everything I could to be helpful to Pete as he worked on the script. I think hes done a fabulous job!

Ive been involved in almost every aspect of the film from the very beginning I first worked with the producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson of Color Force to select the screenwriter that would adapt the book into a script, and then we focused on finding the perfect director to make the film. After Jon M. Chu came on board, we went into full casting mode and then very quickly into production. Since then Ive worked with the costume designer Mary Vogt and the production designer Nelson Coates, and its all been so exciting. I think very few authors have been as involved in the film adaptation of their book as I have, and I feel very lucky to have had this experience. Everyone involved is so brilliant, and Im thrilled by the way theyre bringing the book to life on screen.

Q: This movie seems to be arriving at exactly the right moment in the zeitgeist for Asian performers in Hollywood. Do you think theres extra pressure because of that?

A: Certainly. There really seems to be a whole movement behind this film and its become a symbol of hope not just for Asian performers, but for Asian communities all over the world. I think everyone working on this film from Jon to the actors to everyone on our incredible crew feels that sense of excitement and expectation, and its really inspiring everyone to give that much of themselves to the movie. I think audiences are going to be crazy happy with the results!

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Q & A: Kevin Kwan and his world of 'Crazy Rich Asians' - Press Herald

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Minister commends Unilever Nigeria’s commitment to growth of … – BusinessDay (satire) (press release) (registration) (blog)

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July 9th, 2017 Editor News 0 comments

Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, has commended Unilever for its long-standing service and commitment to the growth of the Nigerian economy. The minister, who made this commendation during a courtesy visit and factory tour to the manufacturing giant at the weekend, also reaffirmed governments commitment to supporting Unilever in its operation. Welcoming the minister, Siddharth Ramaswamy, Unilever West Africas vice president, Supply Chain, reiterated the companys commitment to the growth of the Nigerian economy through plans to increase its investment portfolio in the country and enhance local manufacturing. According to Ramaswamy, the company, which has been operating in Nigeria for almost 100 years, would continue to invest in the country despite the prevailing economic challenges. Nigeria is strategic to our business operations. This is why we remain committed to the countrys socio-economic development. We currently operate two manufacturing hubs in Nigeria, and we are already taking actions to increase our local manufacturing capacity, Ramaswamy said. There are ongoing investments which will not only provide additional employment opportunities for Nigerians, but will deliver further economic value through the development of a sustainable supply chain structure consisting of local manufacturers, he said. In his response, Onu said the government was working hard to move the nations economy from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy and was looking to partner with organisations such as Unilever to achieve this through synergy with several research institutions under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Visits such as this, he said, were to create an avenue to see how the government could assist organisations like Unilever to overcome challenges by providing enabling environment to grow their business either through incentives or enabling legal framework. We want companies to use more of local raw materials in production processes because when this happens, new jobs will be created, and our GDP will grow, thereby reducing poverty. This can only happen if we work with you and other responsible companies, he said. The minister encouraged Unilever to show more interest in local research in order to improve its production process, while also charging the company to work more closely with FIIRO and other research centres under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

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Minister commends Unilever Nigeria's commitment to growth of ... - BusinessDay (satire) (press release) (registration) (blog)

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GOV HR Summit aims to develop national talent – Trade Arabia

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Innovating ways to inspire and motivate the workforce and leveraging technology to make informed decisions on managing talent will be on the agenda at the upcoming GOV HR Summit in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The 5th annual Human Resource platform will open its doors to HR leaders from top government, semi government and state owned entities across the GCC, on October 30, under the theme Turning the biggest challenges into the greatest opportunities.

With an impressive line-up of influential and intellectual international and regional leaders in human resources, the summit will kick off with a powerful keynote presentation by Ray Jefferson, global leadership practitioner, consultant, speaker and former Senate confirmed US Assistant Secretary General for Veterans Employment & Training, under former US President Barrack Obama.

In my opinion, the best government administrations in the world are led by committed, servant-leaders. Great leaders lead by example, innovate and persevere to create an impact, effectively communicate & connect with their PEOPLE and believe in the Power of Being ONE TEAM, Jefferson said.

Ackash Jain, director at event organiser QnA Global, said: Leaders across the region are working to implement a National Agenda with the primary objective of economic diversification to build a sustainable knowledge-based economy with human resources as its backbone. Supporting the vision of the most prudent leaders of the region, the fifth edition of the GOV HR Summit will serve as a high-level, knowledge-sharing platform, bringing together top government leaders and decision makers from across the GCC to share, discuss and showcase their organizations innovative human capital strategy.

Summit speaker Lubna Qassim executive vice president, Group Chief General Counsel at Emirates NBD said, When it comes to empowering women on a professional level in the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai has been a bold game changer. When it comes to education and joining the workforce, women continue to excel. However, one challenge that we face is not having an adequate number of women in the C-suite and as members of the board.

Mahmood Al Hameli, senior vice president, Business Support at Senaat, said: As a leader within the UAEs industrial sector, the development of our human capital is of great importance to Senaat and its portfolio companies. Our on-going investment in the training and development of young Emiratis is a vital component of this endeavour, in order to attract and retain the best talent for our group. Senaat is committed to cultivating a workforce armed with the necessary skills to succeed in the ever-changing modern business climate. As such, we are contributing significantly to the long-term vision and economic diversification of Abu Dhabi and the UAE.

The summit will feature powerful keynote presentations, panel discussions and round table sessions examining such crucial topics as reinventing Human Capital management; developing compensation strategies to meet the demands of today's competitive workforce; sharing successful implementation of nationalization initiatives and re-calibrating company culture to support business goals.

The two day conference will end with the regions most prestigious award ceremony, The GCC GOV HR Awards 2017 that recognizes, promotes and rewards excellence, professionalism and outstanding achievement of governments, business organizations and individuals who have raised the benchmark of people performance across the region. TradeArabia News Service

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GOV HR Summit aims to develop national talent - Trade Arabia

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