Month: July 2020

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CoinDesk Podcast Network - BREAKDOWN: Why Are Execs of Bankrupt Companies Being Rewarded With Millions?

Today on the Brief:

  • A followup on Tesla, corporate earnings and PayPal’s crypto ambitions
  • New COVID-19 shutdowns in California 
  • Small businesses on the brink 

This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Crypto.com.

Our main conversation:

Bloomberg has reported recently bankrupt companies including J.C. Penney and Hertz had provided executives with more than $131,000,000 in bonuses. 

On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW examines:

  • The logic behind these bonuses
  • Why that logic is stupid 
  • How this sort of reward for personal failure in the wake of 2008 led to the rise of populism on the right and left 
  • Why we should allow companies to fail 
  • Why people’s sense that the system is a crony system isn’t wrong

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Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders - S2 Bonus: Ryan Graciano, Credit Karma (Replay)

Early on in his life, Ryan Graciano aspired to be many things - law, writing... and eventually coding, of course. Fun fact, he is an accomplished dog trainer. focusing on animal behavior modification - and more recently, has gotten into powerlifting. Despite his love of analog activities, he got started coding right after college, and tried to avoid joining IBM... yet, still did, through an acquisition. After a few years of growth, he met a group of entrepreneurs who had an idea to provide credit scores to millions of users... for free. This idea would eventually become Credit Karma.


Today's Sponsors: 

ClipGain.io (https://clipgain.io)

RIMS (https://www.rims.org/)


Links


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Amazing tools we use:

  • If you want the best publishing platform for your podcast, with amazing support & people - use Transistor.fm.
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Credits: Code Story is hosted and produced by Noah Labhart, Co-produced and edited by Bradley Denham. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Breaker, YouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.



Our Sponsors:
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Everything Everywhere Daily - Rutherford B. Hayes is a Big Deal in Paraguay

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th president of the United States. He is famous for being the second person to win the presidency without winning the popular vote, and he won in the electoral college by a single vote. The whole election was so shady, he earned the nickname Rutherfraud. Beyond that, there isn’t a whole lot that people remember about the Hayes administration. However, in Paraguay, Rutherford B. Hayes is a really big deal.

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Lex Fridman Podcast - #108 – Sergey Levine: Robotics and Machine Learning

Sergey Levine is a professor at Berkeley and a world-class researcher in deep learning, reinforcement learning, robotics, and computer vision, including the development of algorithms for end-to-end training of neural network policies that combine perception and control, scalable algorithms for inverse reinforcement learning, and deep RL algorithms.

Support this podcast by supporting these sponsors:
– ExpressVPN: https://www.expressvpn.com/lexpod
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If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon.

Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

OUTLINE:
00:00 – Introduction
03:05 – State-of-the-art robots vs humans
16:13 – Robotics may help us understand intelligence
22:49 – End-to-end learning in robotics
27:01 – Canonical problem in robotics
31:44 – Commonsense reasoning in robotics
34:41 – Can we solve robotics through learning?
44:55 – What is reinforcement learning?
1:06:36 – Tesla Autopilot
1:08:15 – Simulation in reinforcement learning
1:13:46 – Can we learn gravity from data?
1:16:03 – Self-play
1:17:39 – Reward functions
1:27:01 – Bitter lesson by Rich Sutton
1:32:13 – Advice for students interesting in AI
1:33:55 – Meaning of life

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SCOTUScast - Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc. – Post-Decision SCOTUScast

On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants Inc., a case involving a dispute over whether the government-debt exception to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991’s automated-call restriction violates the First Amendment, and whether the proper remedy for any constitutional violation is to sever the exception from the remainder of the statute.
By a vote of 6-3, in an opinion by Justice Kavanaugh, the Court affirmed the case, holding that The exception for calls to collect government debt from a federal ban on robocalls to cellphones violates the First Amendment, but the exception is severable from the rest of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
Justice Thomas joined the court’s opinion as to parts I and II. Justice Sotomayor filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. Justice Breyer filed an opinion concurring in the judgment with respect to severability and dissenting in part, in which Justices Ginsburg and Kagan joined. Justice Gorsuch filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which Justice Thomas joined as to part II.
To discuss the case, we have Michael R. Dimino, Professor of Law at Widener University School of Law.
As always, the Federalist Society takes no particular legal or public policy positions. All opinions expressed are those of the speakers.
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SCOTUScast - USAID v. Alliance for Society International, Inc. – Post-Decision SCOTUScast

On June 29, 2020 the Supreme Court released its decision in United States Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International. By a vote of 5-3, the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is reversed. The justices held that the enforcement of a law requiring foreign affiliates of domestic groups receiving funds to fight HIV/AIDS to have a policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking does not violate the First Amendment. Justice Kavanaugh's majority opinion was joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch. Justice Thomas also filed a concurring opinion. Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Justice Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. Our speakers will discuss the decision and its implications.
To discuss the case, we have both Casey Mattox, a Senior Fellow focusing on toleration and free speech at the Charles Koch Institute, and Krystal B. Swendsboe, Associate at Wiley Rein LLP.
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SCOTUScast - USAID v. Alliance for Society International, Inc. – Post-Decision SCOTUScast

On June 29, 2020 the Supreme Court released its decision in United States Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International. By a vote of 5-3, the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is reversed. The justices held that the enforcement of a law requiring foreign affiliates of domestic groups receiving funds to fight HIV/AIDS to have a policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking does not violate the First Amendment. Justice Kavanaugh's majority opinion was joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch. Justice Thomas also filed a concurring opinion. Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Justice Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. Our speakers will discuss the decision and its implications.
To discuss the case, we have both Casey Mattox, a Senior Fellow focusing on toleration and free speech at the Charles Koch Institute, and Krystal B. Swendsboe, Associate at Wiley Rein LLP.
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The Intelligence from The Economist - Crude awakening: the Arab world after oil

Historic price fluctuations are hastening a post-oil transition that many Arab countries were already contemplating. That could foment plenty of unrest, but also some much-needed reforms. Not many Americans had, until recently, relied on midwifery. Now business is booming—and that has big public-health benefits. And a much-needed update to the old saw that work expands to fill the time available. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer