http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/assad-part-of-solution-in-syria-julie-bishop-signals-policy-change/story-fn59nm2j-1227544502722?sv=73a358828d8d737433cc8b39f524c09f

Australia is set to abandon the Abbott government's long-held position that disgraced President Bashar al-Assad step aside as part of any durable peace settlement in Syria, in what amounts to a major policy shift designed to hasten the end of the bloody civil war.

Instead, the Turnbull government has reluctantly accepted that Assad, whose brutal regime has been blamed for the majority of civilian deaths in the 4½-year conflict, may form a part of any future government of national unity designed to preserve the crumbling Syrian state.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told The Weekend Australian there was an "emerging consensus" that the Assad regime would be likely to be pivotal in any ­attempt to fortify the Syrian state and prevent further gains by the terror group Islamic State, also known as ISIS or Daesh.

"Given Australia's significant contribution to the humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq and our involvement in militant operations against Daesh, it is inevitable that we will play a role as an advocate for a political solution in Syria," Ms Bishop said.

"It is evident there must be a political as well as a military sol­ution to the conflict in Syria.

"There is an emerging view in some quarters that the only conceivable option would be a nat­ional unity government involving President Assad."

Until now, Canberra had been staunch in its view Assad must go before any peace initi­ative could begin or an enduring political sol­ution could be achieved.

Canberra's about-face reflects an interplay of factors, including Islamic State's strength on the ground as well as the changed political environment in Australia, where Malcolm Turnbull is prepared to take a less hardline but more pragmatic approach to the Syrian crisis than his predecessor did.

Prior to his removal, Mr Abbott said Assad "should go", des­cribing his government as a "dread­ful regime" that had committed "monstrous" atrocities against its own people.

More than anything, the new position reflects the shifting power-politics of the Syrian civil war, including the recent build-up of Russian troops in Syria, who have been flown in by Russian President Vladimir Putin to shore up Moscow's weakened ally in Damascus.

Washington, too, has softened its opposition to the Assad regime, with Secretary of State John Kerry saying the US was now prepared to countenance the presence of Assad as an interim player in resolving Syria's civil war. Previously, Washington had said Assad's ouster was a deal-breaker in political negotiations.

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the wheel has fully turned..now asad can stay..how cute..this a backflip in slow motion..

“There is an emerging view in some quarters that the only conceivable option would be a nat­ional unity government involving President Assad."

only took 4 years to work it out..

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http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/09/24/12/58/global-destitution-set-to-swell-as-world-bank-updates-poverty-line

In a move that has been described as “updating the goalposts” rather than moving them, the World Bank has announced that it will update the poverty line to $1.90 (US) next month instantly adding tens of millions to the ranks of the world's most impoverished.

The decision is the most significant change to the poverty line in 25 years. Previously the line sat at $1.25, while the original benchmark, introduced in 1990, was a paltry $1 a day.

“We don’t think we moved the goalposts,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told the Financial Times.

“We think we simply updated the goalposts to 2015.”

The decision, which is likely to significantly increase poverty levels in places like Southeast Asia, comes ahead of a meeting of world leaders at the UN later this week which is expected to see 17 new “sustainable development goals” aimed at eradicating poverty nutted out.

Earlier this year the World Bank tested a revised poverty line of $1.92, which saw an additional 148 million people considered grievously poor; much of that figure derived from Eastern Asia, where the notional revision saw a doubling of those considered below the line to 293 million.

Elsewhere, Latin America saw a 25 per cent increase, bringing numbers up to 37 million, while in South Asia poverty ballooned from seven million to 407 million; poverty rates in sub-Saharan Africa, however, were relatively unchanged at around 416 million.

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its just numbers..so with a stroke of a pen millions more fall under the umbrella..the pope will save them..

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http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/apple-targets-electric-car-shipping-date-2019-1520641

Apple Inc is is fast forwarding its efforts to build an electric car and has designated it internally as a “committed project” with a target shipping date for 2019.

The Wall Street Journal, in quoting people familiar with the matter, said that leaders of the electric car project code named Titan, have been given the go ahead to triple its 600-person team.

The company has spent more than a year looking into the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, the newspaper said, adding that meetings were held with two groups of government officials in California.

It is believed that Apple’s senior legal counsel, Mike Maletic met with California Department of Motor Vehicles’ deputy director Bernard Soriano and the department’s chief of strategic planning, Stephanie Dougherty, to discuss autonomous vehicle regulation issues, according to The Guardian.

For Apple, a ‘ship date’ does not necessarily mean that that is the date that customers receive a new product. In the Apple world, it also refers to the date that engineers sign off on the product’s main features, the journal highlights.

It is understood that the electric car is unlikely to be a fully autonomous electric car, the newspaper said, despite the fact that the company had hired experts in driverless cars technology.

The journal said Apple’s firm commitment in developing an electric car is an indication that the mobile phone and tablet company plans to venture into the automotive industry by tapping into its expertise developed in hardware-software integration, sensors and batteries, among others, to introduce in the next generation of vehicles.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the report. It said the 2019 target was ambitious as “building a car is a complex endeavour, even more so for a company without any experience.” Once Apple completes its designs and prototypes, a vehicle would still need to undergo a litany of tests before it could clear regulatory hurdles.

Reuters said that Apple has been consistently hiring car experts as part of its effort to build a team in automated driving. It noted that the company took on Megan McClain, a former Volkswagen AG engineer with expertise in automated driving and Vinay Palakkode, a graduate researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, a hub of automated driving research. Apple has also hired former Ford designer Marc Newson.

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not content with just phones and tablets..we have the apple car..coming to a millionaire near you real soon..

“Apple’s firm commitment in developing an electric car is an indication that the mobile phone and tablet company plans to venture into the automotive industry by tapping into its expertise”

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http://www.kurzweilai.net/time-question-everything-will-robots-need-rights-robots-will-demand-rights-and-we-will-grant-them

It's a question of morality. There is no way to prove that one entity is conscious and another is not. Virtual characters can claim to be, but that does not convince us that they are.

Some scientists say therefore that consciousness is an illusion. I would argue against that, however, because our entire moral system is based on it.

If morality and rights are based on consciousness, and if consciousness is not a scientifically testable proposition, then we have to conclude that there is a proper role for philosophy, which is the study of important matters that cannot be resolved through scientific experimentation alone. Indeed, the idea of rights may be philosophy's fundamental issue.

If an AI can convince us that it is at human levels in its responses, and if we are convinced that it is experiencing the subjective states that it claims, then we will accept that it is capable of experiencing suffering and joy. At that point artificial intelligences will demand rights, and because of our ability to empathize, we will be inclined to grant them.

by Ray Kurzweil, inventor and computer scientist

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no surprise to see kurzweil pushing this..robots are not human..get it?

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