Welcome to the AI for Good Global Summit here at the ITU headquarters in Geneva. This is the second edition of course.  Of course, Professor Russell, who's of course a leading professor expert in this field at the University of California in Berkeley. Professor, thanks for coming back. If you've come back, it's because you enjoyed the first time round. What's changed in the last year? So I think as everyone knows, AI is in the news daily, almost hourly, with advances in many areas. Some of the visible ones we see like defeating the world go champion, achieving human levels of capability in dictation and machine translation in some languages, and a huge proliferation of applications of AI in all areas of life. The acceptance of AI assistants like Alexa and Cortana and the various other home assistants that have become part of people's lives. We're also seeing a lot of discussion about the future. Whether AI is going to disrupt employment on a massive scale, whether AI is going to take over the world and threaten the human race itself. In the near term, a lot of developments in the area of autonomous weapons where the United Nations has been leading negotiations among the nations on possibly banning autonomous weapons. And that's moved forward. I think we're starting to see a kind of hardening of the battle lines. There are those who are very strongly opposed to autonomous weapons which would include the entire field of AI and robotics. All of the researchers I think are convinced this is a terrible idea. And then a number of nations have come out in favour of a treaty. But then other nations, the US, the UK, Russia, seem to be opposed to further negotiations. So that's quite disturbing. On the question of whether AI is going to take over the world, we've had very public disputes between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, for example. And I think there's a danger that as happened with nuclear power and genetically modified foods, there's a danger of people hardening their positions and refusing to listen to the other side and caricaturing the arguments made by the others. I think if you just ask two simple questions. If you ask the AI community, are you guaranteed to fail? Are you guaranteed to fail in your long-term goal of creating human-level AI? They would largely say, no, of course we're not guaranteed to fail. If you said, do you know how to control something that's more intelligent and more powerful than you are? No, we don't. OK, well then let's work on it. It's not a debate, it's a simple engineering question. If we are pushing in this direction towards human-level AI, we have to solve the problem of how to control it. One of your colleagues earlier talked about how this is the 50th anniversary of 2001, Space Odyssey, where Hal, of course, takes over the spacecraft. So are you in that, do you think that vision is a reality or not? Yeah, I think actually in that respect, the movie is quite realistic because Hal has a mission to carry out and he is opposed to attempts by the humans to interfere with the mission. That's how he's been programmed, so it makes perfect sense. So that's terrifying. Yeah, I think so. We shouldn't think of this as something that's likely to happen tomorrow or next week. AI systems still have a long way to go before they understand enough about the world to actually pose real threat to us. On the other hand, do you think AI overall on the balance is a force for good? So I think that's the wrong way to think about it. Is nuclear technology a force for good? Well, if we choose it to use nuclear technology for making cheap electricity without pollution, then yes, if we choose to use it to make weapons and kill each other, then no. Like many powerful technologies, AI offers us a choice. And the real question is, are we good? Not is the technology good? And at the moment, I think with conferences like this, we are seeing a real awakening of the AI field to this question, to the challenge of using AI for something other than just making money or killing people. And I'm very, very optimistic that once it's awakened and realises the social responsibility that we have, our research community is going to step up. Now, your research community is based in the hub of it all, of course, California. Are there dividing lines there as well? I think probably there is a dividing line about this question of the long-term future. I think there are people who have been doing technology all their lives and they feel very much I am pro-technology, pro-progress, I am anti-Luddite. And therefore, anyone talking about long-term threat from AI is a threat to this way of thinking. It's a threat to progress, and I think that's a mistake. And I like to draw the analogy to nuclear power. It's not a perfect analogy, but someone who says nuclear power stations could explode if we don't take extreme precautionary measures to make sure that doesn't happen. That person is not anti-technology. It's just common sense. And the same is true for AI. You're making AI systems that are more capable than human beings and you're giving them objectives without thinking through all the ways that the system might achieve the objective, which, of course, is impossible because if you could think through everything that an AI system would be doing, you'd be more intelligent than you are. So it's simply common sense that if you're building something with that kind of capability, you have to take precautions and be aware of the risks. And denying the risks is precisely why the nuclear industry essentially destroyed itself because they didn't take enough precautions, and they had at least two major catastrophes. And now, nuclear power plant construction has essentially ground to a halt since Chernobyl. Just recently, four major European countries have renounced nuclear power altogether. So the nuclear industry by denying risks has destroyed nuclear power and all the benefits that it could bring. So it's not risks versus benefits. It's you can't have the benefits unless you address the risks. Which means that summits like this or elsewhere, we have to put in the guidelines to make it safe now. Yes, I think that's exactly right. People have got to start thinking about ways that it can fail and how to prevent that. We've seen failures with bias in systems that are making decisions, important decisions, financial or even parole decisions. We've seen image recognition algorithms describing people as gorillas. We've seen all kinds of very public failures. We've seen cars killing their drivers or pedestrians. And I hope that those events will actually cause a change in the culture away from this idea that we're in favour of progress, that we're necessarily good and anything we do is good, to actually taking ourselves seriously and saying we have responsibilities. Professor Russell, it was a pleasure. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. So that's Professor Russell from the University of California talking to us about how and 2001 and future guidelines which need to be put in place to make sure that AI stays good.


Hi, this is Jane. Thank you so much for attending today. I am a cancer genetic counselor at Riverview Medical Center and today I wanted to cover the various aspects of genetic counseling and genetic testing. I want to know why people come to me, the many misconceptions about genetic testing, and also the questions that people will have about the genetic testing concerning insurance that's the biggest question that I normally get. I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. I have 27 years experience as a counselor, I am board certified, and I am also licensed by the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiner so those are my credentials. What I would like to do today is go over, as I said, the various aspects of genetic counseling, genetic testing, why people are sent the misconceptions and some of the questions that people have about genetics. Some of the questions and misconceptions would be why do I need to do this. Why do I want to know about something that I can't do anything about because many people feel that once you find out you're positive that there's nothing available to you. I want to show you that that's not true. I've already got cancer. I know it's hereditary or what is the point of testing. Now, I'm going to show you the difference between hereditary and sporadic cancer. I'm already doing my screening for either colon or mammographies for breast. This may have an impact on your family history or personal history if you do genetic testing. So the questions, as I said before, our insurance won't pay for this or my insurance will get canceled. So we'll go over all of those different things. Next slide. First thing I want to show is the difference between genetic and hereditary. All cancer is genetic, but not all cancer is hereditary. So this picture here is showing sporadic cancer, hereditary cancer, the mechanisms behind them. So let's start with the top row.   But we do accumulate mutations over our lifetime. So in the second cluster of cells, what you're seeing is one copy is damaged and one copy is okay. Right at that point, you'd still be all right. As long as one copy is working, things are going good. The third cluster of cells you see that there may have been an exposure that took out that second copy. Now you've got a cell that's not doing what it's supposed to do because that's second that pair of genes isn't doing its job. Once one of the copies gets fixed, that cell has the potential to start multiplying out of control and turning into a cancer. Sporadic cancer happens 90% of the time when someone has a diagnosis of cancer. It is not hereditary. But as you can see it is genetic because the genetic material is being damaged, but this kind of cancer sporadic, it does not have the potential to be passed on to the next generation.  I need that copy in order to keep, I need to copy that cell in order to keep building you so in that situation you will wind up with being still made of a trillion cells, but now every one of them has one copy of the gene that doesn't work. The bottom part, bottom cluster with the first cluster of cells, that's a bigger target than the cluster of cells up at the top. So you have more of a possibility of getting to the same endpoint for that second copy to get damaged. And it usually happens in less time because there are more more cells that can be damaged with that second copy. Next. Let's start with some of the questions. Why do I need to do this. Well, actually, you don't need to and you're not required to genetic testing is very personal. It's not like many people say oh it's just a blood test just do it. If you come back with results that are positive, or even if you come back with tested or negative because you don't get the answer you may be looking for.  All right, but if you do identify a genetic mutation, it can also lead to interventions that can try to prevent that cancer or can try to lessen the chances of that cancer happening. There may be specialized surveillance, there may be surgical interventions, and even some medications that can be given to lower your risk of some of the cancers. And it can also help to detect a cancer while it's either still curable or it's very early stages so you have more options on what to do about it. The testing can also provide information for your family. If you test positive you're going to have a number of people that are closely related to you that may also be positive for that same mutation. You can give them the same opportunities for the different protocols that are in place. I've also found that the results can alleviate the uncertainty or anxiety in a family. If you have a number of people with the same kind of cancer. Again you're going to think it's hereditary or again you're going to think oh I'm definitely going to get this. If you're tested and you're positive, it can give you more control over what you're going to do. If you're tested in your negative, all of the cancers that may go with the gene. You're now back to being the same risk as other people in the population. I've also found that patients are more likely to follow the screening recommendations that are given to them. If you're busy, you have to go for your mammogram or you have to go for your colonoscopy you're going to say oh you know what I'm feeling fine I'll just wait a few months or I'll skip it this year. If you know you have a gene mutation and your risks are going to be considerably higher than the general population. People are more likely to say I'll make time for this and I'll do what I need to do. Next. Why would I want to know about something that I can't do anything about. When you have genetic testing before a gene can be put on any kind of a testing panel. There has to be something in place for you to follow up, you have to be able to do something about it whether there's a surgical treatment or just a surveillance that's put in place. That being said we have various guidelines that are in place for us to follow the biggest one would be the nccn guidelines that stands for national comprehensive cancer network. That is pretty much the Bible for any of the oncology specialists that deal with patients. These guidelines have major recommendations that are followed they are updated usually every six months there are a bunch of different specialists that get together, and they decide what's new what literature has come out what studies have proven this or have unproven that. The guidelines are for many different types of cancer, many different sites that cancer can happen, and they will go over what you're going to be doing a very specifically. What age do you start surveillance how often do you do it, what is or what surgeries or medications are available for us to be treated for certain things. Next. These next two slides are not really meant for you to be able to read them they're too small and they're very busy but I just wanted to give you an idea of what the guidelines actually look like. These two pages are actually for Brock a one or Brock a two people that are positive. And what it's going to do is actually show you what ages, you're supposed to start things the next grouping goes into what surgeries or what different treatments can be offered to you. This page that you're seeing here, they actually go in for Brock a one and two about what to do for men what to do with reproduction. And that will have an effect on someone's life so we want to make sure that they have very specific things that can guide them in in their care. This same information on the ncc and guidelines is available on many different sites that cancer can occur. So you're going to get some of them actually have four or five pages of things that you're going to be following. This is something that I want to preface for the next question which about I'm already screening for already have cancer. This is a panel of genes, it's a lab called myriad genetics, and I wanted to show you what's available. And I want to show you to why testing for multiple genes becomes important. If you look down the left hand side that's the name of the gene that we'd be looking at. And if you go across, it shows you what cancers are associated with those particular genes. So as you can see, one cancer can have multiple genes that can be responsible for it, and one gene can have multiple cancers that that gene can cause. So I'm going to combine the answers because we are all doing what we're well we all should be doing what we're supposed to be doing which is colonoscopy which they've moved down now to 45 years old, instead of 50. And mammogram starts at 40 unless there's a reason for you to do it at an earlier age. What people don't know is, as I said one gene can be responsible for many different organ systems. So, while you may be diligent in what you're doing, you have a family history of colon cancer you're doing your colonoscopies every so many years. What you may not realize is if you have a gene mutation, you maybe have cancers that for the stomach or the ovaries or the uterus, you're not doing screening for that. If you're testing and you find that you're positive, you would then have those particular surveillance is implemented. If you're tested and you find out you're negative, then you would go back to doing the screening that you were doing all along. The point is, is that you're not screening for other cancers you may be at risk for simply because you don't need know that you need to do that. If a person is diagnosed and they are positive. We also know that the outcomes are better because of the improved proven medical interventions. So you would have certain surgeries that we know help that help to lessen the recurrence of the cancer or help to lessen a cancer occurring in the first place. We also know that various chemotherapy protocols. Some protocols work better if you're actually positive. Other protocols work better if you're negative. So, having that information will keep us from having to do the trial and error for chemotherapy you won't be given something that they know isn't going to be super effective for you. Next. All right, insurance isn't going to pay this is the big one. I'm going to do this and I'm going to be stuck with this huge bill or my insurance is going to get canceled. So, most, if not all insurances are going to pay for genetic counseling and they are going to pay for the testing. The thing is, is that there is a criteria that the insurance companies are going to follow. As I said before, 90% of cancers are not inherited so it comes down to money. The insurances do not want to pay for 100 people to get tested when only 10 of them are going to be positive. So they have a certain criteria they want to see a certain number of people with cancer they want to see a certain number of people at a certain age and how you're related to those people. Those criteria are usually taken from the ncc and guidelines so if you meet those guidelines, your insurance is likely going to pay. The lab that we use. So just so you also know there are two bills that are generated one is for the counseling and one is for the laboratory that we use. So the lab that we use will also contact a patient, if the cost to them, even using their insurance is going to be more than $250. They will contact them and say, do you want to continue using your insurance and then whatever the cost is goes towards your deductible, or do you want to pay 250 out of pocket not use your insurance, and that 250 just not go towards your deductible. No matter whether you use your insurance or you pay the 250, you are getting the same genes the same panels, everything is exactly the same no matter how you do it. Any insurance that the lab is considered out of network for they are going to ignore your restrictions you're deductible you're out of pocket and they are going to adjust your bill at the end, and you're going to get charged $100 for the genetic testing portion of it. The thing also to keep in mind is anyone can get genetic testing you don't have to meet a criteria you don't have to have a family or a personal history you may have. Just a willingness to know what's going on. In that case, you would be able to pay 250 you wouldn't use your insurance because we know you're not going to be covered, you pay the 250 you get the same testing that was done if you did meet a criteria. If you're not meeting criteria. It's very likely you're going to be negative. That's the reason the criterias are there. They're there because we've found that if people meet the criteria, they have a high probability of being positive. If they don't meet it, it's very unlikely that they will be, but you are still allowed to get tested if that's something that you want to do. Next. The genetic counseling bill. That's something that is billed through the hospital that you would go to we see people at three different sites I'm at Riverview so the billing goes through Riverview Medical Center. My hack and sac meridian is in network for many insurances if we're in network for you, the billing would go just like it does for anything else that you have done here you would have to meet your deductibles you're out of pocket, otherwise the cost would be responsible, your responsibility. If it's out of network, then the cost for the entire session would be the patient's responsibility so just make sure that you are that we're in network before you, you come for the appointment. Now for patients with Medicare, that's a special situation that's been set up. The laboratory we use it's called in vitae, they are presently testing patients and they are not charging them. So that cost would be zero. The hospital is also not charging. We have an arrangement with them because of the particular code that was picked. So your co pay or the cost of the session. There's no charge for that so basically if you have Medicare, the testing and the counseling would be free. Moving into insurance discrimination or getting things canceled. There are several federal laws that have been put into effect. We've got them listed Gina HIPAA and American Disabilities Act. The Gina law is genetic information nondiscrimination act. All of these laws are there to prevent medical insurance companies from obtaining genetic information about you without your consent, or if they do happen to get it to be to not be able to use it to set your premiums. You have to be careful when you are signing a consent form for information to go somewhere. Genetic information along with psychiatric and sexually transmitted diseases that is supposed to be kept in a separate part of your chart. When you have any MR and electronic medical record. Everything is kind of together you can click in anywhere you want to go. It's not really separated anymore but when you sign a consent, and you sign a blanket consent, it is not supposed to include your genetic information. The informs are supposed to have a separate spot for you to check that off. If you want to make sure that it's not going to have something get sent that shouldn't get sent. You can scribble it out cover it up so that everybody knows you do not want your genetic information being sent. Your information is only as safe as the people who are taking care of it so just be careful when you're signing different consent forms that your genetic information is not going to be sent if you don't want it to be. Right next. That's a little bit different and long term disability insurance. The states are the ones that usually will put laws in effect to try and protect you against discrimination or premium costs being elevated because of your situation. However, when you're filling out the application, you may get the question, do you have a genetic condition in your family, and have you been tested for it. Not to ask that question, you do need to answer it. Honestly, or then they can deny you because of fraud, but keep in mind that just because you have a number of people in your family with a cancer, a similar cancer. It does not mean it's genetic. You don't have to answer that question yes, unless someone has been clinically diagnosed with a genetic condition, or you have been tested and you have a positive result. You may not have a genetic condition in your family, you can answer that question no. Now, while they are allowed to, they're not allowed to discriminate based on the state laws, they can outright deny you for different things that you may have in your family. Now they may not deny you because you have a genetic condition but they may deny you because you have a particular cancer, or you have a particular medical situation. Okay, but just keeping in mind that the costs and the reasons they're denying you may not be the same situation. If you have a life insurance policy or a long term disability policy that is already in effect, and you are not required by that policy to update them on an annual basis or whatever timing they may give you. You may not need to update them on your genetic information. So it's a case of don't ask, don't tell. If they do require you to do it every year, then you would need to tell them that while I've been tested for this and I have come back positive. It also is in your, it's a benefit to you if you do have to update it and you get tested in your negative to tell them hey I'm also negative so that should help help with the policy that you have an effect. So what you could do is probably possibly talk to a broker they're the ones that would be able to tell you whether or not there is an issue concerning a genetic condition, mostly because a lot of insurances will sell in one state but they're based in another state. And I am completely unfamiliar with if you have somebody that's located in Oklahoma, but they're selling insurance in New Jersey, which laws are they going by, are you protected by the laws in Oklahoma or you protected by the laws in New Jersey. All right, so let's talk a little bit about what's going to happen in a genetic counseling session I'll have many people who say I have no idea what's going to go on here.  I would talk about your mammographies any biopsies that you've had if you've done your colonoscopy how many children you have different things like that to do an intake on on the individual.  You're usually sent paperwork to help get all that information in one place. So the paperwork for the family history is a grid and it has all the different generations and all the different people, and you just plug in all the different people if they have a cancer how old they are different things like that. It helps you to get the information together, because many people cannot talk about their family, just off the top of their head. And then we're going to do a mini genetics 101 class I'm going to go over what DNA is how cancers happen. In fact, that picture that I used in the beginning that's in my session, and also the testing process and what genes you're you're going to test for next. Alright, so remember this slide. This one shows this 25 gene panel. We have panels that go anywhere from nine genes up to 84 genes. So we would go over your family history, your personal history, see what you're comfortable with. It's going to be appropriate for your family but this gives an idea of exactly what you're going to be looking at in terms of making a decision on what you're comfortable with. Next. If you decide to do testing, the testing would be done that day, I would take one tube of blood. The results take about three weeks to come back. If I know that you need results to help with a decision on surgery or any type of treatment. And this is usually for breast cancer patients. The panel that you choose I can pull out the most prevalent breast cancer genes and I can get those results back in 10 days. The remainder of the testing whatever panel you chose that would go take another week or two weeks to come back, and I would call you with each of those results. So what kind of results can you get. You can be negative, you can be positive, or you can have a variant of uncertain significance. A negative result. Next slide. Negative result can be a true negative or a patient negative. Now a true negative means that you have a family member who got tested and they were told they were positive. I'm going to test you, if you are negative, then that means that any of the cancers that go with that gene, or anyone in the family who has a positive result. They are no longer a family history of that cancer for you, because I know what caused their cancers and you didn't inherit it. So now we're going to be screening you going forward, based on the population risk so you're back to doing your colonoscopy every five to 10 years or you're doing your mammogram every year. If you are negative with a patient negative, that means that there's no known family history of an actual mutation, but you may have a number of people with a particular cancer and you're coming to see is this hereditary. No, stay where you are. Thank you. If you are negative. It's going to rule out many genetic conditions, but I still have this family history that I have to be concerned about. There could be a genetic condition in the family. I don't know that unless those people get tested if they get tested and they're positive. I can rule them out and we no longer have to worry about them but in the meantime, we're then not going back to population risk. What we're now going to do is manage you based on your personal history. And now we have to continue looking at that family history to determine what types of screening you need to do. Okay, now the next one. All right, if you come back positive. It means that there's a change in the gene that's considered pathogenic. It's considered to be harmful. And there are going to be certain cancers that are going to need to be followed up on and screened for. It's also if you're come back positive, we're going to be looking at different family members that are related closely that you're going to need to offer. Let them know so that they can be tested so they can be offered the same protocols in terms of trying to prevent a cancer or treat a cancer they may already have. The recommendations we're going to use are going to be from nccn and they will determine what type of medical management is going to be offered to you. Family members at risk should consider testing both for themselves and also if they have children because of their positive, their children have a chance of actually inheriting those mutations. So the last one is a little bit more involved. It's called a variant of uncertain significance. So, DNA from person to person is not the same. We all have variations in how our story gets told how the job is done. But for the most part those variations are okay. And the lab is used to seeing them. However, every once in a while someone will get tested that they have a change in their DNA the lab hasn't seen. There's not enough information on it or there aren't enough people, or they have four or five people but their family histories are very different than yours. So the laboratory has to go back and they have to do more research. They can eventually come back with a reclassification of it being positive or negative, but just keep in mind that that process can be very lengthy I have people that are out several years and still haven't gotten a reclassification. The thing is, is that 90% of the time if you have a variant of uncertain significance, it is going to get reclassified as negative. The guidelines that we are using, they're going to state that you're going to base your screening and your surgical decisions on your family history and your personal history. You're not going to base it on that variant. Don't do something you can't take back, meaning don't do a surgery based on that particular finding because you may wind up with complications. In the end it's going to get reclassified as negative and you didn't need to go and do the extensive surgery or whatever you chose to do. So again, any changes in your personal history any new symptoms, or any family history that changes, get that looked into. One other thing, I also will send you a copy of your report, and the report is going to say that you have a variant in this particular gene. And it's going to go on to list the, the syndromes or the cancers that will go with that particular gene, if it is a mutation. Pay attention to those areas that they're listing if you're having any problems in those areas, get them checked out. I don't know that that gene isn't what's causing your problems. We don't normally test family members because we wouldn't know what to tell them, we wait until it's reclassified and then we will go ahead if it's positive, and we'll let you know what you need to do for your family members. All right, so we see patients in three different locations. I am at Riverview, Nicole Salvatore is at Ocean Medical Center in Jersey Shore, and Angela Fay is at Jersey Shore Medical Center. So our scheduling is done through central scheduling so you would call that number you would just let them know which campus is geographically best for you or if you're looking for the next available, but if you want a specific counselor. Well, for me you'd be able to do it with Riverview if you went to Jersey Shore, you may get Nicole or you may get Angela and unfortunately you aren't asked able to ask for the specific counselor they're going to give you whatever appointment is open. But if you do Ocean you're going to get just Nicole if you do Riverview you will get just me. Thank you so much and if you have any questions. I'd be happy to answer them. I'd like to put the, the other thing back up for the different phone numbers so that people are able to look and see, because I know that it's a lot of information to try and quickly get down. All right, if you have any questions, just let me know.


So after having the opinion of an Indian historian who taught 40 years at Harvard, Tufts, et cetera, now maybe a Turkish opinion, I'm not a historian. But when we look at history, for example, William Penn in 1693 writes a book, Some Reasons for European Powers, to establish a European state. And he has a joint parliament yet, and the revolving presidency, and the joint army, et cetera, and allocates seats to the members. Spain, eight seats, France, 10 seats. Turkey, 10 seats. And he says, Turks are Mohammedans, right. But they are human beings, and they are in Europe. So a Quaker proposing a European integration includes Turkey in 1693 in the heyday of Ottoman Empire, I would say. But the Polish ambassador once said that, no, no, we beat you in 1683. So it wasn't really the heyday. But be that as it may. I come to First World War. Turkey occupied. We lost the war. We always say in history classes, we lost the war because the Germans lost it. But we lost it, too. But in any case, Turkey was occupied. And Mustafa Kemal Atatürk started a war of independence, war of liberation. He organized some meetings in Sivas, Erzurum, and the parliament was established in Ankara 1920, Grand National Assembly. That is the only example of establishing a parliament before even starting war of liberation. And he was successful. Lozan Treaty was signed, Republic was declared, and as Professor Feruz Ahmed said, that he wanted to achieve contemporary civilization. We used to have religious laws. Atatürk's reforms, we have adopted Western legislation. Nowadays, they tell us, a key communitaire, 80,000, 100,000 pages, will Turkey be able to implement that? Today, because of the customs union, we already adopted 60% of the key communitaire and implemented. But in 1926, we have totally adopted Western legislation. Turkish civil code and obligations code is a verbatim translation of Swiss civil code. And then we have adopted the German Handelsgeser commercial code, Italian criminal system, French administrative law can say that it's a revolutionary change. They call it reception of a legal system, not like hotel reception, but reception of a legal system. And in 1926, although we adopted the Swiss civil code, Turkey, and thanks to Atatürk's reforms, Turkish women had the right to vote and to be elected to parliament 40 years before Switzerland and maybe 30 years before many other European countries. This is the vision of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. And in 1927, in Austria, an Austrian aristocrat, Rehard Kaudenhauf von Kalergi writes a book, Pano Europa. And in this book, he's all the parliaments, et cetera, it says, British cannot join. They're not Europeans. I don't know why he says that. They're still debating that. But it says, Turkey, if so, wishes can join. It is thanks to Atatürk's reforms, 1927, 1928. Professor Feruz Ahmed mentioned the League of Nations, Turkey joined. In 1929, Monsieur Aristide Briand, French foreign minister, made a speech in the League of Nations in Geneva. He says, we, the members of the League of Nations, European powers, should establish a European organization. And they said, fine, go and make a project. And next year, he came back and they said, well, Turkey is not a member of the League of Nations. Why? Because Turkey only joins atatürk's Turkey, that is, organizations that you are invited to. And of course, in Lausanne Treaty, Turkey's borders in the Southeast today was left open. British smelled oil. And therefore, that was left to the League of Nations. A Lithuanian general drove the border. And it drove in such a way that the oil is on the other side and the rocky part is on our side. But in any way, Turkey didn't join in the League of Nations. Since there was going to be a European organization open only to the members of the League of Nations, there was a proposal. Spanish delegate proposed that Turkey should be invited to the League of Nations so that they could establish a European organization. Spanish proposal, guess which country supported? Greece. So at the time, of course, Greek Prime Minister, Venizelos, nominated Atatürk for Nobel Peace Prize. And some of them were nominated them together because after 1923, how they established peace between the two countries. But 1945, UN was mentioned, 1949, Council of Europe established. And the 5th of May, Europa Day, we celebrated, et cetera. First Council of Ministers met. And the first thing Council of Europe did was to issue an invitation to government of Turkey that it becomes a member of Council of Europe, the first act. And our foreign minister was informed, so he was waiting outside in the corridor. So he joined from the first day. So Turkey is like a founder state of the Council of Europe. There are being discussions. Is Turkey European? How much part of Turkey, Anatolia, Asia, Trace? Professor Feriz Ahmed said Trace is very small. It's much bigger than Belgium, Holland put together. So I mean, what is small, what is big, it's something else, but Turkey has become a member of Council of Europe. And Joint NATO, the treaty was signed in 51, in 52, four years before Federal Republic of Germany. The kind of burdens Turkey has undertook for the defense of Western Europe, as you may remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, how the Russian Khrushchev was going to attack Turkey. We had 65 missile bases, missile monitoring bases, all for defense of Europe. If today, Poland and all the Eastern European countries are members of European organizations, NATO, EECs, thanks to Turkey's sacrifices in the defense of Europe. But this seems to be forgotten for some reasons or not. But the European Coal and Steel Community, fine, in 1957, March 25th, Treaty of Rome signed in Rome, municipality building, entered into force first of January 58th. But even before the entry into force of the Treaty of Rome, in October 1957, in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, which was established by Ataturk in the same very building, a new Turkish prime minister after the elections was reading a new government program. The first time we had multi-party elections was in 1946. In 1950, the Republican People's Party was wiped out, and Democratic Party won a big landslide majority. 54 still a big majority, 57 less, but still they formed the government. And Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was reading the government program, Turkey being a member of Council of Europe, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Council of Europe, OECD, and many other European organizations. We understand something called Common Market is being established, 1957, even before entry into force. Although this sounds like an economic organization, Common Market, we think it's going to lead into a political union, and that's why Turkey must be a part of this Common Market. Who says that? Turkish Prime Minister. When? Even before entry into force of the Treaty of Rome, and with the political organization. Most of the leaders, at least some of them, who signed the treaty at that time did not have that political integration vision. So this is important, and in 1959, July, government of Turkey has applied for an association. This was the end of July, and September negotiations started. You know how long we waited for the accession negotiations at the time? We didn't have to wait. August, everything was closed in Brussels. They have vacation, they used to go to French Riviera, now they go to Turkish Riviera, but still September negotiations started. And the Turkish government in 1959 had an interministerial meeting, and this meeting had the common negotiating position. The negotiating position of Turkey was, we want to have an agreement based on a customs union leading to full membership. Year 1959. Why? Because the Treaty of Rome, the original article nine at the time says, European community is based on a customs union. So when the negotiations continued, in 1963 it was signed in Ankara, in the Grand National Assembly again, this was the new building then, it's not at the Turkish building, but still six foreign ministers were there, the original six was six members at the time. And the first commission president, Professor Halstein. Professor Halstein said with this treaty, Turkey has tied her destiny to Europe. Joseph Lunds of Holland said Turkey today has become inseparable part of European integration. And then it was the German foreign minister, Italian foreign minister, they all said the same things, and the treaty was signed. The association agreement we have today, why I'm telling you of these is some months ago in European Court of Justice, Advocate General appointed by Sarkozy, Mr. Both said Turkish association agreement is just an economic agreement. Whereas up to now, there are more than 60 judgements which says Turkish agreement is an agreement aiming for membership for closer cooperation, therefore we have to interpret it this way, that way, et cetera. This is the first time, no wonder it's a Sarkozy appointment some of my students say, but still this was the issue. Now, look at the association agreement, the four basic freedoms, enshrined in the Treaty of Rome is exactly taken in our association agreement, free movement of goods, services, workers, and the capital. And in 1970, additional protocol was signed, fixing the timetable. Customs union was to be established between 12 and 22 years after the entry into force of the additional protocol. Entry into force 73, 22 years 1995. So today, since 1st of January 1996, Turkey is the only third country which has a full customs union on industrial products with the European Union, which is an important issue. And there was also a provision which said there will be free movement of workers. Fries, the Germans say it's a mouthful word, but anyway, would start between 12 and 22 years after the entry into force of the association agreement, which is 64, so between 76 and 86, according to this treaty, there was supposed to be free movement of workers between Turkey and the European Economic Community as defined in the Treaty of Rome, nothing special. However, this has not been realized, and although Turkey has agreed to have full customs union by 1996 with EU, this was agreed based on the assumption that there will be free movement of workers 10 years before that, 1986. So when we look at it from a legal point of view, that portion, that column of the association agreement has not been fulfilled. Now, 1996, fine, a customs union means you adopt the common customs tariff, but not only that, we adopted all the international agreements that EU has signed, free trade agreements, preferential agreements, cooperation agreements. Our official journal, 94, 95, 96, appeared in encyclopedic volumes. Why? Because we have adopted a substantial port of the Aki Community. We have adopted the common intellectual and industrial property rights law. They said there must be equal competition. You know, you're becoming member of the customs union, so competition must be on equal grounds. We have adopted the competition laws, all the European regulations, directives, exclusive distribution agreements, exclusive buying agreements, beer distribution agreements, everything, verbatim translation, and today we have one of the most effective national competition authorities in Turkey. This is fine, but is there equal competition between Turkey and the European Union in industrial products or any other products? There are some technical issues. I don't want to bore you with all of that, but goods are in free circulation. American goods coming to Turkey enter usually from Rotterdam, Hamburg. Nowadays they come to Piraeus, Constanza, Nessebar, Varna, et cetera. They pay the customs duties in member states and since goods are in free circulation, come to Turkey. Member states, among themselves, have a system where such customs duties are shared. It goes to the community budget and so on. Since Turkey is not a member, we don't get anything of this. This is a customs union, but works only in favor of EU countries. This is one aspect. And the economists tell us, I'm not an economist, that they say that in customs unions work in favor of more advanced, richer countries. Why? The infrastructure is stronger there. If you want to set up a business, would you do it in Rotterdam, Hamburg, or Mezzajorno or some places in rural areas in the south? So in order to elevate such structural imbalances, in EU there is structural funds, social funds, cohesion funds, all sorts of, and the European firms competing with Turkish firms are benefiting from these funds, directly, mostly indirectly, Turkey gets nothing. This is another aspect. And when the Association Council in 1995, March, decided for the completion of the customs union, as it was agreed in 1963, as the diet was fixed in 1970, the 15 member states at the time made a solemn declaration. A customs union in industrial products with the advanced industrial states of European economic community in a country like Turkey is a big challenge. Therefore, Turkey will need substantial, medium, and long-term financial assistance. And we shouldn't wait until 1996. We should start it immediately in 1995. That's still hanging there because of vetoes of a certain footnote member states and various other countries that that financial support has not been realized either. And therefore, the customs union issues are quite serious. Now, in order to come here, I almost canceled my visit here because the honorary council general of Ireland in Istanbul used to be able to give visas. And I refused to apply for visas because I feel in 1982 I wrote a letter to a professor inviting me to Germany. I don't want to subject myself to an illegal act. And unfortunately, the treaties which are signed these days are not even worth the paper as Germany has imposed a visa. And the professor who invited me sent the letter to Hans-Dietrich Gencer. And Hans-Dietrich Gencer, the foreign minister at the time, writes back to me, professor, don't worry, be happy. Why? This is a temporary measure. It is still being applied 1980 and today.  I have more than 100 Erasmus law students in my faculty, only five or six wants to go. Professor, we don't want to go through that visa torture in human degrading. And apparently my passport was sent to Ankara. I didn't want to have the risk my passport being sent by post, et cetera. But today, ladies and gentlemen, that equal competition, fair competition, does it exist? Member state businessmen and industrialists enter into Turkey either without a visa. And when professor Mimta Soysal, constitutional law professor was minister, he imposed visas on the countries during his reign for a visa. Or that visa can be obtained in the airport in few minutes, 10 euro, 12 euro. And the amount of money I had to pay three years, four years ago for two year UK visa was more than 300 euro. I didn't even travel at the time. I was just having that. So Turkish businessmen, we are in customs union. Goods are in free circulation. Many investments are made in central Turkey, eastern Turkey, because of opening up the customs union. And these guys send their goods to Frankfurt fair, Hanover messa, wherever they are, goods arrive. But the persons who are going to sell them, who are going to exhibit them, go there 10 days after due to visa takes time and they lose the business opportunities. And you know what kind of documents you have to have in order to apply for a visa, 21 different documents, land ownership deed trusts, six months your bank account traffic.  And nowadays it's not even a consular officer. It's a company delegated by the consulates.  Where is commercial secrecy? And then you have to have a letter of invitation from your business counterpart. How can you have arms length negotiations in a customs union, even if your presence in that country depends on your commercial competitors sending a letter? Is this the way to run a customs union? And then there are truck restrictions. Goods are in free circulations, good. Turkish trucks, no, not more than 15,000 from Hungary, not more than 18,000 from that country. Where is customs union when you bring restrictions of that nature? So these are some of the issues. But another most important issue is that in 1996, as you remember, I said we have adopted all the European external economic agreements, trade agreements, et cetera. And normally through WTO gut negotiations, this would continue. Since the Doha round did not work, now EU goes around and signs free trade agreements with Mexico, Tunisia, now Korea, India, supposed to negotiate with US. And where is Turkey? They go and sign with Korea and turn to us, you sign a similar agreement. But we don't have the same negotiating power of EU. And when EU goes there to negotiate, what do they negotiate? It's about the European customs area. And the European customs area today is defined 27 plus Turkey. So to my mind, there should be a Turkish minister in the Council of Ministers. It's called 133 Meeting for Trade. Before they determine a common negotiating position for EU, for EU, you have a country 75 million, 16th largest economy in the world, six largest economy in Europe, and it's all trade, external trade relations, dependent in Brussels without even consultation. Is this the way to run a railroad company that Americans say, but it's not the way to run a customs union. If you and me, we set up a business here and I send goods from and if I do, in a joint venture, things on my own, without consulting you, is this fine? So European Union is unfortunately violating the concept of customs union, where there is no consultation, nothing. To my mind, sure we should be in the decision making and if European Union is negotiating with country X, we should start the negotiations with the country X at the same time. If you don't sit on the same table, at least do it somewhere else, but negotiations should continue parallel and such text agreements should be concluded at the same time and make sure enter into force at the same time. Today, Korean products with lower customs tariffs enter into EU, but since we could not sign an agreement with country X with whatever country, Korean products come into Turkey with lower tariff, but our products cannot go to Korea because we still don't have an agreement. This is contrary to any kind of principle of customs union that you may have. Now, I mentioned all sorts of things from history to the day. You have a country which has for the last five decades tied its destiny to European integration and if Europe continues, this Turkey, Muslim, ISIS, is Europe, religious organization, which in the latest constitutional debate this was rejected, but after five decades and Turkey, all the political institutions, all the economic agents, everybody made their programs, five year programs, 10 year programs in line with EU integration and if Turkey is pushed out because of religion or whatever reason it may be, I do not, I mean, some of my colleagues in Brussels says that after such a treatment to Turkey, I hesitate that Turkey will not cooperate with us. That everybody expects that if you push Turkey on the corner, Turkey will still cooperate and immigration, harmonization, every kind of issue. After such a resentment that the country is facing all these things, would Turkey be there to cooperate with Europe again? To some extent, yes, but that would be an open question and these days negotiations was opened up 2005 with a unanimous decision of the Council of Ministers and then we had Sarkozy and I don't know he was having problems with his first wife so I thought after Karla Bruni he would be more relaxed. He puts table so he's taller, so he could, no, he blocked six chapters on what ground because they resemble membership. What are we talking about? These are membership negotiations, accession negotiations, certainly they will deal membership and then Greeks the pre-administration blocked certain other aspects and as you know the membership of the Greek Cypriot administration was in violation of their own constitution, was in violation of the treaties establishing Republic of Cyprus as an independent country. We recognize Republic of Cyprus when there was full Turkish participation. Turkish vice president, which has a right of veto, which was accused of abusing the veto. Galafkos Clarides in his memoir says vice president has never used the veto, he only used this once and it was to our benefit. Three ministers in the cabinet, member of the parliament 60-40, municipalities, Turkish separate municipalities and because of such delicate checks and balances in the constitution there was a supreme constitutional court, one Greek judge, one Turkish judge and the third judge, a German professor from Heidelberg, Professor Forstoff, so that this could be an arbitration type of arbiter in the disputes. In 1963, after six, seven volumes of judgments of the constitutional court, which said that the acts of the Archbishop Macarios at the time has been in violation of the constitution, the guy has been threatened, his house was with a bomb, he escaped and the Turkish ministers moved out of office in 1963 and today there is no such Republic of Cyprus. European Union started the negotiations hoping that this could be a catalyzer for solution and the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said Cyprus joining EU without the constitutional settlement over my dead body. I saw him running in Berlin the other day, it's good he is still alive but after black males, if you don't allow that, I won't do this type of thing.  Now, the customs union covers all the member states, Greek products also, but since we do not recognize Cyprus, Greek Cypriots as the Republic of Cyprus, their boats cannot come to Turkish ports. This is a gesture. Wow, you have to do this because this is customs union. Yes, fine, but what about our trucks going EU? They say no, customs union only covers goods, trucks, this is services. When it comes to ships from the other side, such kind of double standards and not really honest treatment, unfortunately hurts people in Turkey. I've spent all my life. I've set up the European Institute in Marmara University in 1987. We had the top brand students in the master's program which was really tough, they all graduated. I saw some of them the other day, professor they said, it's already 23 years, we are about to retire. You got us into the EU issue. Now in the university I work with, they say why don't you set up the European Institute? I said, no, I burned my fingers now. But I think it is time which we appreciate that the Irish presidency is working on to open several chapters, I hope, but one chapter seems to be already agreed. But, and with the kind of developments in the Middle East, I think it's in the Western interest to keep Turkey fully in EU. There is nothing called special partnership, privileged partnership. These are all baloney, Turkey will not accept anything lower than full membership. There could be longer transitionary periods for free movement of persons, they are afraid. The situation is not the same today. Turkey is the fastest growing economy as the governor of our central bank, the former government is going to explain. In 2008, there were 800,000 guest arbiter in Turkey from Armenia, from Ukraine. I wanted to have bookshelves in my home. Two persons who didn't speak Turkish, they were from Romania, they fixed the library there. And we have house maids, et cetera, from all sorts of different countries. And 200,000 Turks from Germany returned to Turkey. So this visa issue is important. The reasons for imposing the visa as if it was valid in 1980, which I didn't think as already is gone. The first thing in order to improve the relations pupils' resentment that the visa, which is, by the way, illegal. The European Court of Justice has ruled that the Turkish Association Agreement, like free movement of goods, has free movement of services. And this will be achieved by decisions of the Association Council. But Article 41 says, contracting parties shall refrain from introducing new restrictions on free movement of services and right of establishment. Here right establishment open a branch, open a shop, subsidiary company, et cetera and free movement of services. So the European Court of Justice, in the Soysal case, it was a Turkish truck driver and the Germany didn't require a visa from Turkish truck drivers. But the smart guy in the Interior Ministry said we should put a visa on the truck drivers too. He went to the court, Berlin court, Luxembourg court, and Luxembourg court said this article is clear, unconditional and does not require any implementing measure. Therefore, it has direct effect and the visa constitutes a new restriction. But the European people, we have Schengen. Schengen rules are secondary sources of law. Turkish Association Agreement is a primary source of law.  Your Schengen resolutions and rules must be in line with the Turkish Association Agreement. And unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, your country and other member states and the commission is violating European Union law, judgments of the European Court of Justice by imposing a visa on Turkish citizens, setting up a business, et cetera. But in 1973, if you wanted to, you know, sitting in Konya and I dream of opening up a shop in Dublin, of course you have to come as a tourist first, look around how many shops here make plans, which sector you can do, et cetera. And today there is a case waiting in the European Court of Justice and I wonder why both said that the Turkish Association Agreement is purely an economic agreement. It is not. Turkey has not agreed to a customs union for the sake of having a trade arrangement. Turkey has accepted the customs union because according to our association agreement, Article 28, as soon as it becomes clear that Turkey can undertake obligations arising from membership, accession negotiations will start. So this association agreement is a pre-accession agreement and therefore I think it's due to the member states who joined the EU to accept the AKI Communiter altogether with the promises for membership and the treaty obligations, is the distinguished chairman is keeping showing me the time. I would stop here but try to answer questions.


I'm Gin Llyst and I'm here to talk to you about some aspects of my work with Hackaday, so I don't know, some of you may well be already familiar with Hackaday, so I've got to explain what it is. It's a global news website for the tech hardware hacker and maker community. It's hosted by the commercial arm of WordPress and it's one of their biggest websites in terms of traffic. I don't know the exact figures, but when you consider how many websites WordPress host and how many very influential and very large websites, for Hackaday to be one of the largest ones means it has an enormous amount of traffic. There's something that I didn't quite realise when I started writing for Hackaday. I thought, yay Hackaday, I've read them for years, they're awesome and hey now they want me to write for them, awesome. Then I suddenly realised just how many people read everything I write, which is actually quite scary because if you get something wrong a huge amount of people see your mistakes. I've copied and pasted some of this from Hackaday's about us page and edited it slightly because it sums up the way Hackaday sees itself and it's largely the way I see what I'm writing when I write for them. They say we serve up fresh hacks every day. Now I've put mostly hardware in there because the trouble is to most people with a hack means software. It means some nefarious character who's going to break into your bank account or hack the Pentagon or whatever and to us it's a much more fundamental meaning of working specifically with hardware. Hackaday covers some software stories if they're interesting, but we're more likely to be covering things mechanical or electronic because that's what tends to interest us and our audience. The mission statement that's direct copy and pasted are playful posts of the gold standard of entertainment for engineers and engineering enthusiasts. The key thing there is playful I think because to try to present technical subjects in an entertaining manner.  We're reappropriating the word hack. Now my background, as Laura said, is in electronic publishing. I spent 20 plus years working all the way from the CD-ROM business, computer games, the web, Google, search engine marketing. I ended up at the Oxford dictionaries. I was the tame geek to the dictionary effectively. I wasn't a lexicographer, but I worked alongside the lexicographers on all technical aspects from dealing with their website and quite often advising them when they wanted to know about a tech thing for a definition or something, which is a fascinating and inspirational and vibrant bunch of people to work with, most of English history, classicists, whatever. They didn't think of themselves as scientists, but they were far more rigorous in their science than most people with BSCs. As part of that job, I actually looked into the word hack and haco in the context of our community. It has its origins in the tech model railroad club, which is still going. It's the model railway club at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  It's actually a very, very large railway layout. It's now controlled by all sorts of computers and things. You can go and see it. I think you can look on their website. They have opening hours. It's funded famously by a Coke machine out in the passage. You can put your dollar in by a Coke from the famous machine and support the genesis of the word hack. For them, back in the 50s, a hack was a creative and inventive use of technology or a piece of mechanical apparatus to do something that wasn't originally meant to do. It was a term of praise that is a really cool hack. That's the sense in which we see it. I did some research on the word hack because when I arrived at the press, the dictionary said, I think it appeared in the mid to late 60s, something like an unusually clever user of computers. I can't remember the exact word. I thought, no, it's got to be better than that. Everybody in my community knows it's tech model railroad club. I did a bit of research. I found there's a document written by an early member of the TMRC. In a 1962-odd issue of the tech, which is MIT's newspaper, there's an article talking about some guys using a PDP-1, the Digital Equipments Corporation mini-computer for war dialling, effectively going sequentially through all the numbers in the telephone book for... Is it Cambridge, Massachusetts where it's based? All the numbers in the telephone book looking for numbers that had other computers on the end of, and going in and seeing what they could find, and they got bollocked for it. But it's one of the oldest textual citations of the word hack that we could find. I bunged it off at my lexicographer colleagues, and to be honest, I don't think they found anything earlier. By the way, if any of you know any MIT graduates from that period who either were the people who war dialled with a PDP, or who would know the people who war dialled with a PDP, get them on to me. Hackaday would love to interview them. That's a by the by. Serving a mix of the latest impressive project hacks and other work from our wider community as well as our own original content. That's very important. Our community is one of the broadest and most clever communities on the planet with an astounding array of skills that produces some amazing work. I mean, I'm just an electronic engineer who writes, I have things I do, but they're only a narrow bunch of things I do. And I find among the Hackaday community there are people who can do all sorts of amazing things in the hackspace community, in your local hackspace. You'll find people with skill sets you wouldn't dream of and they'll be plugged into this community. You know them. You know people who know them. You can get hold of them. And so to me, bringing all that together is what keeps me coming down for breakfast every morning. It's what keeps me enthused about what I do because I never know what the next awesome project somebody is going to have made that I will be required to write up will be. And that to me is drinking from the fire hose of tech is something I can't believe I've managed to find somebody to pay me to do. Hackaday writers are a global team. We've got quite a few in the States. We've started in the States. Quite a few of us in Europe. Guy's in India. Guy out in, I believe, Vietnam. Australian. I'm not sure if we've got anybody in South America. We should. And we have one contributor in China. Yet again, they have a huge breadth of experience. Did any of you have a Commodore 8-bit computer in the 1980s or 70s? The guy who probably designed significant chunks of it is a guy called Bill Hurd. He's one of the writers for Hackaday. He's just one example of the kind of people that Hackaday have got on board. And yet again, it's an amazing team to work with. Also, there's a community sister site hackaday.io. Hackaday is owned by a Silicon Valley electronic component sourcing company called Supply Frame. They own several companies. The one that they own Hackaday, they also own a site called Tindi, which you may have seen in this kind of sphere, which is sort of like Etsy for makers. If you make little electronic kits or modules or whatever, you can sell it through Tindi. But they also have run a thing called hackaday.io, which is a community site. The Supply Frame marketeers would probably call its social networking for makers. But it's actually where you can host your project and get your friends to look at it and stuff. So that's very much the other side of the Hackaday community. So that's enough about Hackaday and enough of the commercial. The trouble is, if you've got a tech news site, you've got to keep the posts coming. And doing content is a blooming nightmare, let me tell you. There's probably about 15 or 20 of us all in total. And we have, let me think, probably about 15 or 20 posts a day. I'm one of the editors, I should know this. But a constant supply of good posts has to be lined up and ready to go. We have to have 20 pending posts that we haven't published yet, just to be sure that we're not going to run out of posts. And as a result, we become adept at scouring the internet. We all have our own sources, our own places we look to find the cool stuff as it comes. Probably the most important place is actually our tips line. And if you have made an amazing project which you think, hey, the Hackaday readership would love to see that, submit it to the tips line. We pick stuff to write because it's the stuff that interests us. We figure that if we go, wow, that's really cool, then so also will our readership. Occasionally we get it wrong, we get the dreaded not a hack comment. But there's always going to be some type of us who's going to get annoyed and sort of say, well, Hackaday isn't what it used to be back in the day. But the fact is we look at it as well if there's one reader who is upset because basically they didn't write it, then I'll go with the 100,000 readers who thought it was an excellent post myself. So occasionally, though, the global Hackspace community lets us down. After the American election, for instance, it's like they all went into shock. And there was about three weeks during which nobody produced anything. There was nothing decent coming through on the tips line. We're all tearing out our head, desperately looking, scaring the Hackspaces of the world, looking for things. So when there's nothing on the tips line, it does happen from time to time, we start getting creative. We start looking at other online sources. So myself, I will have a sort of regular trawl through quite a few amateur radio blogs, Raspberry Pi blogs, Arduino blogs, Hacker News, if you're familiar with that. When I'm really desperate, I've got a list of every English language Hackspace in the world's website, and I go through them one by one by one by one to find their latest blog post. And as somebody who's been a director of a Hackspace, I know how difficult it is to keep a Hackspace website updated, but it always makes me feel quite good because most of their websites are less updated than Oxford Hackspaces is, which makes me feel quite good. And then hunches and other random thoughts. Just occasionally inspiration comes to you for a post. I had that quite recently. Now, I hope I'm not revealing something that isn't published yet, but it's one of those moments when you're in the bath and you think, hey, I wonder what happened to that. A few years ago, there was a post, a project doing the round. Somebody was remanufacturing the Ford Model A engine from the 1920s, a side valve engine from a quite early primitive motor car, and they were re-engineering it with modern metallurgy, proper bearings, a five bearing crank and a better cooling system. And it was a fantastic project. It was one of those things like, wow, I can't wait to see that. And of course, one doesn't think about these projects. One forgets about them. I was just sitting in the bath and suddenly I thought, what happened to that? And so went off, found it. Unfortunately, it's stalled because they couldn't find a foundry to do it. And so I wrote it off Hackaday and said, does anybody in the Hackaday community know a foundry who could help? Because if any community will know somebody in a foundry, it's a Hackaday community. So wherever you can think of cool stuff is where we try to find articles. And sometimes it can be an absolute struggle. Occasionally, we have desperate sort of, oh no, we've got four posts left and we've got two days to schedule. Let's desperately try to read it. Hopefully it hasn't got to the point at which that's become obvious to the readers yet. But I'm trying to get across the struggle that faces any content-driven news source. You have to keep the news coming. We haven't also got to the point where we're making up the news or going out there to make the news happen. You'll never be really desperate with that. The other side of it, I should say the daily posts, there are eight or nine, ten of them a day and they are about 200, 250 words long. They normally have a description of whatever it is, something along the lines of, wow, so and so it. This Hackspace or whatever has done this amazing hack and it's cool stuff and this is how we think it works and here's a video and here's a link to it. 200, 250 words. We're not giving them a full write-up. We're saying go and read their write-up. The other side of it is original content posts. These are the editorial side of Hackaday. Normally there is, I believe, one or maybe two of those a day. They are either medium length, sort of 500 to 1,000 words, give or take, or long OC, which is over 1,000, can be as much as 2,000. To me they are the fun part.  But usually it's personal interests. For instance, I grew up in a farm so if you read Hackaday you'll have probably noticed one or two posts about tractors and implements and things. You'll have noticed one or two posts about amateur radio from me or even one or two about the running of a Hackspace which always gets me into trouble with Oxford Hackspace because they're always convinced it's about them. I've got a plan for this. I live roughly half-odd in Oxford, Milne Keans and I'm going to join Milne Keans Hackspace because then I have plausible deniability. So when I write about Hackspace politics I can say, oh no, it's about MK to the Oxford people and say it's about Oxford to the MK people. It's plausible deniability, I love it. We do reviews. We don't do paid reviews. If you want free stuff, set up a site, do reviews. Be a shameless reviewer of anything.  Sorry, shiny, worthy, wonderful stuff which you're going to say is awesome. You will sit and you'll write a glowing review about how wonderful it is and they'll send you more stuff. There are a lot of science that do that. A few of them are straight up about saying so and so sent to me this. Most of them aren't. Now I want to make this as clear as I possibly can that if you see a review on Hackadates because we bought it, I believe occasionally my colleague Brian is sent pre-manufacture 3D printers that are exciting for I believe he had a delta 3D printer from one of the manufacturers that was very keenly awaited but when he did that review I believe that he made it excruciatingly clear this is a printer that's not on the market yet. We were sent it as a pre-manufacturing thing by the manufacturer. This is not a unbiased review. We were sent this to have a look at it. So if you see a review and it's just a review of a product it's because we bought it. My most recent review was a toy. It's actually a soldering iron. A USB soldering iron. A wonderful 8 watt USB soldering iron that cost me the Prince this summer £3.68 from Banggood.  So I put it on there thinking I'm going to review that.  So I'm pleased that I did that review but even for a £3.60 soldering iron trust me we paid for it. In fact I paid for it. I'm not going to bother claiming it back from Hackaday. Matters are rising. If something comes in the news that needs a piece of comment. So for instance I've written quite a few and my colleagues have written quite a few of those. The ones I've written have been often about multi-rotors, drones. You'll see a lot of drone coverage in the paper I'll probably return to that in a bit but it's when you're responding to a news thing with look the news isn't giving a good tech angle on this and we feel that it needs somebody who actually knows what they're talking about to talk about it. Conventions and camps if you are familiar with the Hack Space Hacker Maker community you'll find, well you're at an event of course, you'll find a lot of Hacker Maker camps Hackaday and supply run their own events, they've got one in London in the middle of the month coming up I was at the Sharr Hacker camp in the Netherlands beginning of August. Was anybody else here at Sharr? Nobody. Imagine a music festival like Glastonbury or similar only without the music because that would get in the way of the fun and every structure on the site from the smallest tent the largest marquee having power and 100 gigabit internet access and you've got the continent's Hack Spaces turning up with all their cool stuff showing it off and socialising and it is an unrivaled atmosphere that every time I go to one of these Hacker camps I just walk around in the dark with the lasers and the lights and the rave music and the smoke with a beer in my hand and just drink it all in and it's one of the cool things now working for Hackaday I find people actually seek me out to show me stuff I don't even have to go and find it. The next such event if I've enthused you about Hacker camps is I think called EMF camp it's the end of August next year and it's in the UK so I could commend that as an aside and editorial suggestions occasionally my editor will say I think you should write about this because I grew up in a farm he's recently come up and asked me I think you should write about this aspect of actually an aspect of technology as it applies to growing stuff it's addressing the issue of how most people are divorced from the land I don't have any idea how technology or how the food they eat is made that's a typical example of an editorial suggestion you'll probably see it at some point in the next month or so for me and then finally rants are great because you can just let it go I'll try to think of a recent rant I did I did a rant about the lack of a decent DC power connector because I find it completely odd that when I buy a 12V appliance it comes with a car cigarette lighter plug on it who if they were designing a DC electrical outlet would come up with the car cigarette lighter plug and so I wrote a significantly long rant on that particular subject and you know when you are when you've hit the mark with a hackaday piece because you can look at the number of comments it generated and that one generated 189 comments the day leaves you lucky if you get 20 a good original content editorial piece you get 50, 60, 70 but that one the comments just kept on coming and coming I obviously touched a raw nerve among my fellow engineers anyway let's move on I'm going to look at a couple of original content in detail just to give you the breadth of the stuff the kind of stuff we do this is a piece I wrote last year and it's actually a very journalistic rather than technical piece and it's a piece I'm quite proud of because I feel it really touched on an issue you'll see in the newspapers a lot and the subject is multi-rotors drones and their oft reported close encounters with aircraft in Oxford Hack Space we've got a young guy called Jared who's been flying drones since he was an early teenager and now does it professionally to be fair to me he does it to a very very high standard and he was sitting there getting very very very irate one day when I came in there because he'd read the newspaper reports about a drone strike and there'd actually been a proven strike between a drone and a British Airways I believe it was a jet airliner on the approach to Heathrow and two days later they actually found and they've approved what it was of hit the aircraft and it turned out to a plastic bag and he was ranting and raving at this because drones were always fingered to be the wrong thing and I'm not a multi-rotor flyer I find them very impressive pieces of kit but I don't own one never flown one myself it is part of Hack Space culture I've been into more than one space and there's been a little more drone flying around your head and landing on your hand and what have you but I just thought well this is interesting there's a story here so what I did was I went away and found a year's worth of civil aviation authority incident reports and went through and analysed them and I was interested by Jared's point that there were all these reports and in none of the cases there'd only be actually turned up with a provable drone and it was quite interesting to read them all because they were generally at very high altitude the aircraft were normally flying at very high speed and the drones were often flying at even higher speed there was one in particular it was coming out of standstead and I cannot remember the airline involved but the thing was flying at about 350 miles an hour and it was at quite a few thousand feet about 10,000 feet and the drone comes into it from one o'clock about there in front of the aircraft at very high speed and then executed a 180 degree turn almost 180 degree turn and then flies off at a similarly high speed at about 2 o'clock so about over there now if you just think about that for a minute I'm not even sure that a high spec military aircraft can do that manoeuvre even if it was flown by the top test pilot you'd need to be able to do max speeds I don't know if you're familiar with drones but they're little electrically driven things from China with four little motors and little propellers they're very cool and they can do some amazing things but they can't fly at max speeds they can't fly at 10,000 feet and they certainly can't approach jet airliners to do 180 degree turn and run away that was the most impressively bad example and this piece went through report by report by report and there is nobody who wants irresponsible drone pilots to be locked up in the key thrown away than me because it brings a bad reputation on to pretty much the whole of the sort of hacker and maker movement when our members get associated with that but I came away from finding very few where even possible it could have been a drone and I came away thinking that it had it was very irresponsible that not only were the pilots reporting them all as drones but the newspapers were reporting them all as drones so I came away quite proud of this particular piece then another piece I want to show you April Fool's Day if any of you are familiar with the audiophile hi-fi business there's a whole world of hi-fi juju, silly things that you stick on your hi-fi make it sound better I went away, combed the internet for the worst examples of bad hi-fi journalism cut and pasted them all together edited them together and made a hackaday sticker like that or like the one you can see on my laptop at the end I have got some hackaday stickers unfortunately I haven't got any of those nice ones if you want one a hackaday sticker into a hi-fi accessory that's an example of the completely opposite side of the kind of work we do for hackaday but I'm running out of time that's unfortunate isn't it right how to get your piece noticed by hackaday first of all we're not your marketing department if you have a commercial product that you're trying to push on Kickstarter I'm sorry gun pay somebody we get bombarded with the next big thing Kickstarter's or people who've hired a Kickstarter agent to push them or whatever and try to get us to believe that it's a genuine hack when it isn't it's just something they've found in Shenzhen sorry we're not going to do that we have integrity not everybody knows everything you do the number of write ups that assume the person is already a nuclear physicist are astounding er we have to understand it ourselves and we have our own expertise but we're not experts in everything our readers have to understand it from what we've told them and if it's assumes a very high level of knowledge already then we can't help better to write in a verbose manner than write too little we have to have something to work us throw us a bone please and YouTube everybody thinks that a 30 second badly shot shaky YouTube video is better than a syntax that actually explains matters please just have a video video is great but also give us a write up spare a thought for the image editor please resolution give us lots of resolution if all your images are 320 by 240 sorry 1996 called they want their images back also have a look at the sites that you're aiming for look at the image sizes they use and put up images accordingly in Hackaday's case it's an 800 by 250 letter box and a 600 by 600 square that make images that will fit nicely within those boundaries other sites similar they will have their own things get to know the sites in question look at the images they require and help them if you help them they will help you grammar useful in all sorts of places I used to work for the Oxford dictionaries we get people right stuff if English isn't their first language fair enough English isn't their first language we understand that but if you want our readers to engage with you write as well as you can it's probably the best way to put it and don't make me come in the way if I go to a write-up I don't want to then have to comb through 20 other sites to get the information put all the information in one place please anyway so if any of you want to write for Hackaday we are actually quite often hiring recently a couple of weeks ago Mike put up a we're hiring post it happens every six to eight months so we have a bit of a turn over writers decide whether they get a permy job or they haven't got the time or whatever and so we're quite often recruiting generally they want to see well they specify a sample piece write a sample piece about something which basically if you read Hackaday you'll know roughly what a daily piece is about 250 words a couple of images but also have a portfolio if you have a tech blog if you want to write for Hackaday start a little tech blog of yourself so that you can send something to Mike and he can say wow this person can write in my case I was lucky when I worked for the dictionary I wrote a whole load of stuff for the Oxford dictionaries blog and that along with being the only electronic engineer on the planet with Oxford dictionaries trains literacy meant that he practically bit my hand off so that's it I'm Jenny List you can find my Hackaday stuff there you can find my Twitter stuff there would any of you like to know anything about Hackaday the general hack space world any of the stuff that I've talked about just this


Hi everyone, I'm Korber Rongo with Pasco Sheriff's Office. I'm part of our community engagement unit. Come with me today on a tweet along as we answer calls for service and we attend some community events. We're currently on our way to a trunk retreat event to talk to citizens and pass out candy. Our community engagement members attend events throughout the county to distribute crime prevention information and tips. Talk about the Pasco Sheriff's Office operations and strengthen the relationships with those who we serve. The reason why I chose a career law enforcement was because I really enjoyed helping other people and I wanted to give back to the community. I worked in the patrol division for a few years and then I also worked as a school resource officer. Now as a member of community engagement I'm able to help the community and give back to members within our community and help them make better choices and change that trajectory so that they have a successful life. My role with community engagement also includes responding to calls for service. We're currently en route to a domestic dispute. Hey everyone we just responded to a domestic disturbance. Both parties have been separated. They were interested in some mental health resources so we were able to provide them with that for the future. So we're currently on our way to go serve a warrant. Warrants can be very dangerous just like traffic stops. You never really know what you're going to get involved with so it's important to remain vigilant and to be aware of our surroundings and to make sure that we are taking the right measures to prevent anything from happening and to stay safe. So unfortunately we were not able to make contact with the subject that we were trying to make contact with so we coordinated with other units who will try to get out there and speak with the person at another time. We reached the end of our tweet along today. I hope you guys had a great time and you enjoyed seeing what I do on the day to day basis. Always remember stay humble, stay kind and be the reason why people believe in kind hearts and good energy.


By the summer of 2021, it was apparent from Provincetown, Massachusetts and other instances that you would get people who were vaccinated were still able to catch the virus and transmit the virus. That means all the mandates that happened in the fall, which was when Biden pushed the mandates, were medically unethical because you cannot compel an intervention on a third party if it provides, sorry, you cannot compel a medical intervention on somebody unless there is a benefit to third parties. But by the fall of 2021, we knew that that wasn't the case. Now, I want to point out, we could have made Pfizer answer the question. In the randomized trial Pfizer ran in 2020, we could have asked them to swab people randomly and their households randomly, and we would have had an estimate of transmission. But over and over again, you'll see that to some degree both administrations give the companies the benefit of the doubt the easiest path forward.