Hãy Khởi Hành - HT Ajahn Chah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TopdRyccnlQ Breath and Mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj7Eyd0tSeI Thiền Sư Ajahn Chah - Không Dừng Tu Tập https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzYhAUlRRfU Ngôi Nhà Thật Sự Của Ta - Ajahn

Sayadaw U Jotika - Snow in the Summer

Sayadaw U Jotika Born into a non-Buddhist family in Moulmein, Myanmar (Burma) on August 5, 1947. His parents were U Sattar and Daw Tin. He received his basic education at a Roman Catholic missionary school. During his younger days, he didn't believe in any organized religion although he studied and exposed himself to many different religions, as well as western philosophy and psychology. He graduated as an Electrical Engineer in 1973 from Rangoon Institute of Technology. He became very interested in Buddhist meditation. He discovered that life was unsatisfactory and majority of the people devoted their precious time mainly in gathering wealth, enjoying sensual pleasures, fame, power and position. Thus, he decided to leave behind his family and became a "Samenera" (Novice) at the age of 26. He was ordained as a "Samgha" in 1974 at Taung Pu Lu Tawya, Meiktila with Ven. Taung Pu Lu Sayadaw as his preceptor. He practiced meditation under the guidance of the late Ven. Taung Pu Lu Sayadaw for (3) years. He continued to practice meditation with Htantabin Tawya Sayadaw for (15) years. Ven. Jotika visited Melbourne in 1977 and again in 1998. He was in the United States in 1983-84 for about (16) months, conducting Dhamma talks in Santa Cruz, New York, Boston and Washington. He had visited Singapore several times on Dhamma Duta missions as well. He has established a monastery in a rural environment overlooking a great lake near Pago, (50) miles north of Yangon. His Dhamma talks and books are in great demand in Myanmar as well as with overseas Burmese. He has published about (13) titles so far. One of his popular Dhamma book in English is "Snow in the Summer" He visited the United States and Canada after visiting London, Liverpool and Birmingham. Snow in the Summer https://www.buddhanet.net/intrsnow/ Audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0fkFu7BHbA Introduction Snow in the Summer Introduction: Sayadaw U Jotika (Autobiographical) Sayadaw The need to express is very strong. It is very important for our growth. If you don’t have any opportunity to express, you lose creative thinking. Well, that’s another attachment. I can’t force myself to let go of it. Many times I picked up my pen to write, and many times I put it down. Something hard to put into words is in my mind. Please don’t think I’m preaching. I’m just expressing my personal point of view (feeling, observation) which seems true to me. I know that a lot of things I’ve said can easily be misconstrued. A person can use them against me. I can’t really make my points clear in a letter. Even to talk about them would be a very difficult task for me. Anyway I tried to express my views. The things I’ve said might not agree with the great books. I don’t expect you to agree with me. They are not universal truths. Just my opinions as of October 1986. I’m liable to change, as anything else. Excuse me for my mistakes. I’m a man who keeps himself upset all the time, believe it or not. One day I’ll be happy. Here is something about me. I was born on 5 August 1947. I was educated at a Roman Catholic missionary school. I read about most of the things in this universe. I did not believe in any organised religion. Well, who knows? I thought of becoming a bhikkhu (monk) from the age of nineteen but instead I went to university, and found the education very unsatisfactory. I then educated myself. I found that almost everybody was after position, money, pleasure — very superficial. I couldn’t go on living for the rest of my life like that. I left my family although 1 love my daughters very dearly. I have no place in this competitive society. Being a bhikkhu and living in the forest is the best way of life for me; it suits my temperament. Yes, my grand mother was Shan. She lived a long, peaceful life and died when she was about eighty. I was fourteen then. We were very close. I think of her quite often. I like Shan people, too. They are very mellow. There are a lot of Shan people around Maymyo; some living in Ye Chan Oh Village where we are. There is another village called Yengwe where most of the villagers are Shan, and they speak the Shan language. Some old Shan ladies look like my grandmother — quiet, peaceful, loving, simple, patient, content, unimposing and very friendly. How unlikely to find such people in modern cities. People who are rich are very suspicious; they think people are after their money. You asked me about my relationship with my family. It was never good. The only person I love in my family is my elder sister. She loves me although she could not understand me. Yes, “I’ve never felt I belong to that family”. I was like a stranger in my family. Maybe some day I’ll go and see my sister. My relationship with my parents was a love-hate relationship. (Both of them are dead now.) I was very lonely at home. I know how you feel about your relationship with your family. It’s OK. We find love and understanding elsewhere. No matter what you do and no matter what happens I will always be your father, brother, friend, counsellor, etc. I live on the border of two different cultures — Eastern and Western. Born in Burma (Myanmar) and educated in a Western-style school. Being exposed to all different kinds of religions — Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam — and also to materialism through philosophy. I ended up not believing in anything seriously. Western psychology — Freud, Jung, Adler, Rogers, Laing, William James, and many others; Western philosophy — Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Kant, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Bergson, etc. — enough to make a person very confused. I studied electrical engineering; read advanced scientific theories, including black holes. I know how little people are sure of anything. The most important thing to know is your own mind. Yes, I want freedom. And this should be known from the outset. My freedom is not for sale. Living too long in one place makes me feel like I’m in prison. I’m a lion, according to the Burmese tradition. I really feel like roaming in the mountains like a mountain lion. Ah, freedom… I can’t tolerate any restriction, bond, or tie. Even attachment that restricts my freedom is not to my liking. People get attached to me and I see that as a danger to my freedom. I love freedom and I can’t exchange it for anything. I love freedom of mind too. So I am seeing more and more what imprisons the mind. Although I’ve read a lot of the Pitaka [see glossary for definition], when I find something (see something) it’s like I’m making a new discovery. To discover for myself those simple truths — what a great joy! Eureka! I can’t stand those people who talk like they know about something just because they’ve read about it in books. But sometimes I catch myself doing just that, though I’m doing it less and less. Mountain lion I am. Alone, but not lonely anymore. I have learnt to live alone. Sometimes I want to express my deepest understanding, but it’s hard to find a person who knows how to listen, understand and appreciate. Mostly I’m the one who listens. People like to talk to me. I think wanting to be independent and free (physically as well as mentally) is my strongest desire. There are different forms and stages of freedom. I must follow my nature, at all costs. I might have to disappoint my friends. So many people expect so much of me. It is very unlikely that I can/will fulfil their expectations of me. I am heading towards my own freedom, not conformity. I’ve been reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung. I am very interested in some of his ideas. Some of the things he said about himself really expresses me also. So I am going to quote some of the passages to you: “As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know.” Loneliness does not come from having no-one around oneself, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views that others find inadmissible. If a man knows more than other people, he becomes lonely. But loneliness is not necessarily inimical to companionship, for no-one is more sensitive to companionship than the lonely man, and companionship thrives only when each individual remembers his/her individuality and does not identify him/herself with others. I have to obey that inner law which is imposed upon me, leaving me no freedom of choice. Of course I did not always obey it. How can anyone live without inconsistency? (“Talking about rebirth — in my case it must have been primarily a passionate urge toward understanding which brought about my birth, for that is the strongest element in my nature.”) “I have also realised that one must accept the thoughts that go on within oneself of their own accord as part of one’s reality. The categories of true and false are, of course, always present but because they are not binding they take second place. The presence of thoughts is more important than our subjective judgment of them. But neither must these judgments be suppressed, for they are also existent thoughts which are part of our wholeness.” (So, be mindful of everything.) A person who has not passed through the inferno of their passions has never overcome them. They then dwell in the house next door, and at any moment a flame may dart out and set fire to his own house. Whenever we give up, leave behind, and forget too much, there is always the danger that the things we have neglected will return with added force. (Don’t sit on top of your passions; be mindful of them. For me, ‘passed through’ doesn’t mean ‘acted out’, it means being aware of them, experience them mindfully.) “Indeed, our ‘cult of progress’ is in danger of imposing onus even more childish dreams of the future the harder it presses us to escape from the past. Reforms by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, are of course impressive at first, but in the long run they are dubious and in any case dearly paid for. By no means do they increase the contentment or happiness of people on the whole. Instead, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications, which unpleas antly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time than ever before.” (So, live as simply as possible.) I have done without electricity, and tend the fireplace and stove myself. Evenings, I light the old lamps. There is no running water, and I pump the water from the well. I chop the wood and cook the food. These simple acts make man simple; and how difficult it is to be simple. In Bollingen, silence surrounds me almost audibly, and I live in modest harmony with nature. An indescribable stillness prevailed. In the Tower at Bollingen it is as if one lived in many centuries simultaneously. The place will outlive me, and in its location and style it points backward to things long ago. There is very little about it to suggest the present. If a man of the sixteenth century were to move into the house, only the kerosene lamp and the matches would be new to him; otherwise, he would know his way about without difficulty. There is nothing to disturb the dead, neither electric light nor telephone. (Carl Jung) There is a lot more left, but I want to stop here. You must be bored to death. I think I am a rebel in some ways. All my life I’ve been a rebel. My fantasy: living deep in the mountains, away from people and noise with bare necessity; quietly and peacefully. Do I cry? Well, who would believe that an old monk like me still has tears to cry. My nature is like slow burning ember. You don’t see the flame but it burns nonetheless. I don’t want judgment; I want understanding. I am also not perfect. I am becoming even more imperfect. So I’m scared of those who are judgmental. I want to be left alone. They say a monk shouldn’t be attached to any body or anything but I can’t do that. I’m not just a monk; I’m also a human being. I am not trying to be somebody. I just try my best to understand whatever is happening in my life, in my mind, in my heart. No name and no fame; when I die nothing will remain.

LỆNH CẤM MẠNG XÃ HỘI ĐẦU TIÊN TRÊN THẾ GIỚI CỦA ÚC

http://www.phantichkinhte123.com/ LỆNH CẤM MẠNG XÃ HỘI ĐẦU TIÊN TRÊN THẾ GIỚI CỦA ÚC LÀ MỘT ‘THÍ NGHIỆM TỰ NHIÊN’ DÀNH CHO CÁC NHÀ KHOA HỌC Các nhà nghiên cứu sẽ tìm hiểu tác động của chính sách này lên sức khỏe tâm thần, tương tác xã hội và mức độ tham gia chính trị của giới trẻ. Tác giả: Rachel Fieldhouse & Mohana Basu Giới trẻ ở Úc hiện không còn được phép sử dụng các nền tảng mạng xã hội phổ biến. Ảnh: David Gray/AFP qua Getty Tuần này, Úc trở thành quốc gia đầu tiên cấm trẻ em dưới 16 tuổi sử dụng hầu hết các nền tảng mạng xã hội. Nhiều thanh thiếu niên trong nước vô cùng phẫn nộ, nhưng với các nhà khoa học xã hội, chính sách này lại tạo ra một thí nghiệm tự nhiên để nghiên cứu tác động của việc hạn chế mạng xã hội lên người trẻ. Các công ty công nghệ đã có một năm để tìm ra cách ngăn chặn thanh thiếu niên trong nước sử dụng các nền tảng của họ, bao gồm Facebook, X, Reddit, YouTube, Threads và Snapchat. Từ thứ Tư, các công ty phải thực hiện các biện pháp hợp lý để ngăn chặn người trẻ tạo hoặc duy trì tài khoản, nếu không sẽ đối mặt với mức phạt lên tới 49,5 triệu đô la Úc (khoảng 862 tỉ đồng). Các quốc gia khác, bao gồm Pháp, Đan Mạch và Tây Ban Nha, đã ban hành hoặc công bố kế hoạch áp dụng các hạn chế đối với mạng xã hội dành cho giới trẻ, nhưng không một chính sách nào sâu rộng như của Úc. Chính phủ nước này cho rằng mạng xã hội đang gây hại cho sức khỏe tâm thần của người trẻ, khiến thanh thiếu niên mất ngủ vì các tính năng thiết kế gây nghiện và phơi nhiễm với nội dung độc hại. Tuy nhiên, một số nhà nghiên cứu cho rằng bằng chứng về tác hại của mạng xã hội còn chưa rõ ràng. Giao tiếp với bạn bè trực tuyến là một hệ thống hỗ trợ quan trọng đối với một số người trẻ, đặc biệt là những người thuộc nhóm thiểu số và những người sống ở vùng sâu vùng xa. Tạp chí Nature đã phỏng vấn các nhà nghiên cứu sẽ tiến hành tìm hiểu về tác động của lệnh cấm này

Một trật tự thế giới được xây dựng xoay quanh vùng ảnh hưởng của các cường quốc

https://nghiencuuquocte.org/2026/01/08/venezuela-va-van-de-cua-hoc-thuyet-donroe/ Nguồn: Gideon Rachman, “Venezuela and the trouble with the Donroe doctrine,” Financial Times, 05/01/2026. Biên dịch: Nguyễn Thị Kim Phụng https://nghiencuuquocte.org/2026/01/08/venezuela-va-van-de-cua-hoc-thuyet-donroe/ Một trật tự thế giới được xây dựng xoay quanh vùng ảnh hưởng của các cường quốc là mầm mống cho bất ổn và xung đột. “Học thuyết Monroe là chuyện lớn, nhưng chúng ta đã điều chỉnh nó nhiều rồi, rất nhiều. Bây giờ, người ta gọi nó là ‘Học thuyết Donroe’”. Donald Trump đã nói như vậy chỉ vài giờ sau khi quân đội Mỹ lật đổ Nicolás Maduro ở Venezuela. Chiến dịch tại Venezuela là minh chứng rõ ràng cho quyết tâm của chính quyền Trump trong việc thiết lập bá quyền Mỹ ở Tây bán cầu. Ý tưởng đó là trọng tâm trong chiến lược an ninh quốc gia Mỹ vừa được công bố tháng trước. Sự vui mừng lộ rõ của Tổng thống Mỹ trước thành công bước đầu của chiến dịch Venezuela cho thấy ông có thể sẽ nảy sinh hứng thú can thiệp vào cái gọi là “sân sau” đang được định nghĩa ngày càng rộng của nước Mỹ. Tuy nhiên, những hệ quả của việc thay đổi chế độ tại Venezuela thực sự mang tính toàn cầu. Việc tuyên bố Học thuyết Donroe – kết hợp với những động thái xích lại gần Nga và Trung Quốc của Trump – cho thấy ông bị thu hút bởi một trật tự thế giới được tổ chức xoay quanh các vùng ảnh hưởng của các nước lớn. Cả Nga và Trung Quốc đều lên án việc lật đổ Maduro. Nhưng Tập Cận Bình sẽ vui vẻ hy sinh ảnh hưởng của Trung Quốc tại Venezuela nếu điều đó đồng nghĩa với việc Bắc Kinh được toàn quyền hành động đối với Đài Loan. Nga chắc chắn cũng sẽ thực hiện thỏa thuận tương tự đối với Ukraine. Năm 2019, Fiona Hill, người từng phục vụ trong chính quyền Trump nhiệm kỳ đầu, nói với Quốc hội rằng chính phủ Nga đã “phát tín hiệu rất mạnh mẽ, rằng họ muốn bằng cách nào đó thực hiện một thỏa thuận trao đổi kỳ lạ giữa Venezuela và Ukraine.” Vào lúc này, sự chú ý vẫn đổ dồn vào việc liệu Mỹ có thể “điều hành” Venezuela hay không và bằng cách nào – như lời Trump đã hứa. Vì lợi ích của việc thiết lập sự ổn định – và nhanh chóng tiếp cận trữ lượng dầu mỏ khổng lồ của nước này – chính quyền Trump đang ra dấu rõ ràng rằng họ định thỏa thuận với những tàn dư của chế độ Maduro, thay vì ủng hộ phe đối lập dân chủ đang lưu vong. Thành công hay thất bại của chiến lược đó có thể quyết định mức độ tham vọng của Mỹ trong việc thể hiện quyền lực ở phần còn lại của Tây bán cầu. Một danh sách mục tiêu tiềm năng đã bắt đầu lộ diện. Trong những bình luận đưa ra sau khi bắt giữ Maduro, Trump cũng có vài lời cảnh báo bóng gió nhắm đến Colombia và Mexico. Ông nói Tổng thống Colombia, Gustavo Petro, đang “sản xuất cocaine… Vì vậy ông ta phải cẩn thận đấy.” Ông khen ngợi Claudia Sheinbaum, Tổng thống Mexico, nhưng nói rằng các băng đảng ma túy đang “điều hành Mexico.” Từ lâu đã có tranh luận trong nhóm những người ủng hộ Trump về việc liệu Mỹ có nên sử dụng vũ lực chống lại các băng đảng Mexico ngay trong lãnh thổ Mexico hay không. Cho đến nay, sự thận trọng vẫn chiếm ưu thế. Nhưng cảm giác phấn khích khi lật đổ Maduro có thể thay đổi toan tính của Trump. Chế độ Cộng sản tại Cuba – từng là mục tiêu của nhiều nỗ lực thay đổi chế độ thất bại của Mỹ suốt thập niên 1960 – cũng đã trở lại trong tầm ngắm của Washington. Marco Rubio, Ngoại trưởng Mỹ, người có cha mẹ rời Cuba để đến Mỹ, đã cảnh báo Havana, khẳng định rằng chính phủ Cuba là một “vấn đề lớn” và nói thêm một cách đầy đe dọa – “Tôi nghĩ họ đang gặp rắc rối lớn… Tôi sẽ không nói cho các bạn biết các bước đi tiếp theo của chúng tôi là gì.” Sự sụp đổ của Maduro chắc chắn sẽ gây khó khăn cho Cuba, những người vốn dựa vào dầu mỏ và trợ cấp từ Venezuela. Và kế đó là Greenland. Trump vừa nhấn mạnh lại mong muốn tiếp quản hòn đảo này – vốn là một vùng đất tự trị thuộc Đan Mạch. Ngay sau chiến dịch Venezuela, Katie Miller, vợ của Stephen Miller, phó chánh văn phòng của Trump, đã đăng một tấm bản đồ Greenland được phủ cờ Mỹ – đính kèm chữ “SỚM THÔI” bên trên. Việc sáp nhập một phần lãnh thổ của đồng minh NATO sẽ là một bước đi cực đoan hơn nhiều so với việc lật đổ một nhà lãnh đạo độc tài Mỹ Latinh. Nhưng chính quyền Trump đã chuẩn bị dư luận cho động thái nhắm vào Greenland từ lâu – cáo buộc rằng người Đan Mạch đã thất bại ở đó. Xét đến thái độ coi thường công khai của chính quyền Mỹ hiện tại đối với các đồng minh châu Âu, một nỗ lực sáp nhập từ phía Mỹ là điều không thể loại trừ. Tất cả những điều này sẽ được Bắc Kinh và Moscow theo dõi với sự thích thú. Một thế giới nơi các quốc gia hùng mạnh và các nhà lãnh đạo cứng rắn có thể làm bất cứ điều gì họ muốn đối với các nước láng giềng sát sườn sẽ rất phù hợp với Nga và Trung Quốc. Bản thân Trump có thể tin rằng việc phân chia thế giới thành các vùng ảnh hưởng không chính thức có thể là con đường dẫn đến “sự ổn định chiến lược” với Nga và Trung Quốc, điều mà chiến lược an ninh quốc gia gần đây của Mỹ đã đặt lên làm ưu tiên. Ý tưởng rằng vùng ảnh hưởng của các cường quốc tạo ra sự ổn định nghe có vẻ hợp lý về mặt hình thức. Nhưng nó phớt lờ quan điểm và lợi ích của các nước nhỏ hơn, những nước bị xem là quá nhỏ bé để tự quyết định vận mệnh của mình. Nhưng những quốc gia đó vẫn có quyền tự quyết – và đôi khi có thể đứng lên chiến đấu, như Ukraine đã chứng minh. Ngay cả khi chỉ xét đến lợi ích của cái gọi là “các cường quốc,” các vùng ảnh hưởng cũng dễ gây ra căng thẳng hơn là sự ổn định. Đó là bởi vì một quốc gia như Mỹ sẽ tiếp tục có các lợi ích toàn cầu. Ví dụ, Trung Quốc xem Đài Loan là một phần lãnh thổ và là lợi ích quốc gia “cốt lõi.” Nhưng Mỹ tin rằng an ninh quốc gia của chính họ sẽ bị đe dọa nếu ngành công nghiệp bán dẫn của Đài Loan rơi vào tay Trung Quốc – hoặc nếu Bắc Kinh kiểm soát tuyến vận tải biển đi qua Biển Đông. Đơn giản thì, đánh đổi sự thống trị của Mỹ ở Tây bán cầu lấy sự thống trị của Trung Quốc ở Đông Á sẽ là thương vụ thế kỷ…đối với Trung Quốc.

How AI solved the mystery of a missing mountaineer

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260108-how-ai-solved-the-mystery-of-a-missing-mountaineer Jan 09, 2026 Vedrana Simičević Scouring remote areas for missing walkers and climbers can take rescuers weeks and sometimes months. AI can do the job in a matter of hours in some cases – and potentially save lives. Racing against worsening weather, mountain rescue teams in the Italian region of Piemonte were facing a puzzle. An experienced Italian climber and orthopaedic surgeon Nicola Ivaldo had gone missing. The 66-year-old had failed to show up show up at work on Monday and an alarm was raised. Ivaldo had set out alone one Sunday in September 2024. Unfortunately, he hadn’t shared details of where he was headed with friends or family. The only clue to his whereabouts was the car that rescuers had found parked at the village of Castello di Pontechianale, in the Valle Varaita. From there, rescuers speculated, Ivaldo had probably gone to climb one of the two most prominent peaks of the Cottian alps – the jagged 3,841m-high (12,602ft) Monviso or its neighbour Visolotto, at 3,348m (10,984ft). This matched the last signal from his mobile phone, traced roughly in this area. But this left the search and rescue teams with an enormous area to scour – the vast, rocky faces of each mountain have a number of routes leading to the summits from different sides. The whole area is criss-crossed by hundreds of miles of trails, explains Simone Bobbio, a spokesperson for the Mountain and Speleological Rescue Service of Piemonte. The day Ivaldo went missing, excellent weather had attracted crowds on the most popular routes. No one had reported seeing him on the well-travelled paths. It meant that Ivaldo, a well-trained mountaineer, had probably gone to one of the more remote parts of the mountains.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1376xn/p0msxj8h.jpg.webp The mountain rescue services in Piemonte used drones to take thousands of images of the mountainside before analysing them with AI (Credit: CNSAS) Three days after the search resumed, however, the body of the missing doctor was found at one of the sites identified by the AI, lying in a gully on the north wall of Monviso at an altitude of around 3,150m (10,334ft). His body was recovered by helicopter. "The key was a red helmet identified as a point of interest by the software," says Bobbio. Although tragically too late for Ivaldo, this field test of AI-powered search and rescue demonstrated how useful the technology could be in the future when people go missing. It hadn't been possible to deploy the technology in the initial search, but rescue teams hope it could be used in combination with traditional rescue operations for when searching for people who might still be alive. The use of drones during the search for Ivaldo's body was a crucial element in finding him. Their size and manoeuvrability meant they could quickly cover the difficult terrain, get close to the rock walls and provide views that are not possible from a helicopter. The drone pilots had visited the area several times during the winter and spring to practice flying in the mountainous environment. "We gathered all available information about the terrain from the previous mission and studied climbing paths that might have attracted Ivaldo," says Saverio Isola, drone pilot and chief of the mountain rescue station in Torino. This allowed them to identify priority areas to search. A helicopter dropped two drone pilots high on the mountain slopes and closer to rocky faces and couloirs. They covered 183 hectares (452 acres) of the mountainside with the drones, taking more than 2,600 high-resolution photos. "Until two years ago, we would be analysing these photographs by ourselves, each and every one of them", says Isola. But in 2023, Italian mountain rescuers began experimenting with a few existing AI software programs that are trained to identify significant discontinuities in colour or texture in the landscape. It means that the analysis of the images can be done in a matter of hours. The AI picked through the pictures taken by the drone pilots pixel by pixel, looking for anything that might look out of place on the mountainside. The software identified dozens of potential anomalies from a large number of photographs in a matter of hours. The selection, however, still needed to be whittled down with some human expertise. "The software could react to different things, like a piece of plastic garbage or an unusually coloured rock," says Isola. "It can even hallucinate some things. So, we still had to narrow it down further by taking into consideration the path that Ivaldo, as a very skillful climber, might have used." They ended up with three possible locations, including one that contained a red object. The next morning, when the drones went to check the spots, the red object in one of the photos turned out to be Ivaldo's helmet. This led rescuers to quickly discover the body of the missing doctor, still partially covered in snow and dressed in black. Without the AI flagging the red dot in one of the drone photographs, he may never have been found. "The software managed to detect the red colour even though the helmet was in shade when the image was taken," says Bobbio. Finding a human shape against a diverse terrain in images has some additional challenges This wasn't the first time this kind of AI technology has been successfully used in a search mission. In 2021, software developed by a spinoff company from the University of Wrocław in Poland, was instrumental in the rescue of a missing 65-year-old man missing in Beskid Niski, in the south east of the country. Time was of the essence in this case, since the man had Alzheimer's disease and had suffered a stroke the day before he went missing. Software called SARUAV analysed 782 aerial images of the area and detected the missing person in a little over four hours, providing the Bieszczady Mountain Rescue Service with his coordinates. It was believed to be the first time this type of automated human detection system was directly involved in a rescue. Two years later, the same algorithm was used to locate the body of another missing person in the Austrian part of the Alps. Other software that searches for unusually coloured pixels in natural landscapes – developed by the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association in the UK – has been used to locate the body of a missing hillwalker in Glen Etive in the Scottish Highlands in 2023. But this technology still has many limitations when it comes to rescue missions. Drones are almost useless in certain terrains, such as those with forests and dense vegetation, or in any low-visibility conditions. And existing AI software capable of detecting anomalies in aerial images still require some fine-tuning. Experts from the Croatian mountain service, for example – one of the first in the EU to start using drones back in 2013 – told the BBC that AI programs of this type give too many misleading results in typical Croatian mountain terrain. The mix of vegetation and a complex karst landscape full of different rocky shapes confuses the AI algorithms The key is to keep training the machine learning systems that power these algorithms to improve their accuracy in different types of terrain and conditions, says Tomasz Niedzielski, an expert in geoinformatics at the University of Wrocław and leader of the team that developed the SARUAV software. Finding a human shape against a diverse terrain in images, he explains, has some additional challenges. "The most suitable area for use of algorithms like SARUAV is wide, open terrain in wilderness, where there is no overwhelming presence of people and less chance for the algorithm to produce more false positive results," says Niedzielski.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1376xn/p0msxjbk.jpg.webp Nicola Ivaldo's remains were eventually found partially obscured by snow in this gully after the AI spotted his red helmet (Credit: CNSAS) Daniele Giordan, leader of the GeoHazard Monitoring Group at the Italian Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection (IRPI), whose work involves the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for engineering geology applications, also warns about the ethical challenges in the use of algorithms that search for missing humans "Once you acquire aerial images, you have a responsibility for how to use them," he says. "Identifying human shapes in images could be a legal problem." As a mountain rescuer himself, Giordan is collaborating with the geomatics team at Politecnico di Torino University to develop an improved algorithm that would give more accurate information to rescuers. This includes a more precise geo-referenced location of every suspicious sign that the AI identifies on the images, which would make checking them out more efficient. "Our idea is to develop a more complete software, able to analyse all the data sets from the search activities and to manage the teams on the field and the drones inside the same system," says Giordan. "The future challenge will be to incorporate these complex analyses directly on board of the drones and during the SAR flight." This could eventually allow images of a landscape to be analysed in real time as a search is ongoing. There are other research teams working with rescue organisations to use AI in different ways to improve search operations. Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK, for example, recently unveiled a machine learning system that creates virtual "agents" to simulate how a lost person might behave. They used data based on accounts of how people act in the real-world after becoming lost outdoors. The aim is to produce a map of locations where searchers can focus their efforts. Unlike using images from drones, this kind of predictive approach can be used in difficult terrains such as forests. Faced with the urgency of finding someone before they succumb to injuries or the weather, but also struggling with limited resources, such algorithms could become a important tool for search and rescue services, researchers believe.

On Writing and Writers

Viết là một hình thức trị liệu; đôi khi tôi tự hỏi làm thế nào tất cả những người không viết, sáng tác hoặc vẽ có thể thoát khỏi sự điên rồ, u sầu, hoảng loạn và sợ hãi vốn có trong thân phận con người. Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation. Graham Greene, Ways of Escape, 1980 Viết, tôi nghĩ, không tách biệt với sống. Viết là một dạng sống kép. Nhà văn trải nghiệm mọi thứ hai lần. Một lần trong thực tại và một lần trong tấm gương luôn chờ đợi trước hoặc sau. Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind. Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Atlantic, số tháng 12, 1957 Tôi có thể viết những thứ rác rưởi, nhưng văn chương rác rưởi thì người ta bao giờ cũng có thể sửa. Chứ một trang trống thì đành thua. I may write garbage, but you can always edit garbage. You can't edit a blank page. Jodi Picoult, npr ngày 22.11.2006 Tôi chưa bao giờ bắt đầu một bài thơ mà tôi biết trước kết thúc. Viết… là khám phá. I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing... is discovering. Robert Frost, Selected poems, ed. 1963 Nếu có một cuốn sách bạn muốn đọc nhưng nó chưa được viết thì bạn phải viết đi. If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison, bài nói tại Hội đồng Nghệ thuật Ohio 1981 Cứ viết đi, bất kể điều gì. Vòi mở thì nước mới chảy. Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. Louis L’Amour, Education of a Wandering Man, 2008

Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXLBTBBil2U Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA “There are a lot of things we don’t control…Your job is to make a unique contribution, live a life of purpose, to do sth that nobody else in the world would do or can do, so that in the event that, after you are done, everybody says, you know, the world is better because you are here…I go forward in time, and I look backward…I never look forward from where I am…I go forward and I look backward. And the reason for that it that it is easier…I look backward and kind of read our history. We did this , we did that way. It’s a bit like how you guys solve problems: you figure what is the end you are looking for, and you work backward to achieve it. I imaginbe NVIDIA making a unique contribution to advancing the future of computing, which is the single most important of all humanity. It is not just about ourselves, self-importance, but just because we are good at it. And it’s incredibly hard to do, and we believe we can make an absolute unique contribution….it has taken us 31 years to be here and we are still just beginning our journey."... Technical challenges: computer-aided drug designs…we’re able to represent genes and proteins, cells…very close to design the represent of a cell, the meaning of a cell…humanoid robots…kind of happy challenges. Some of other challenges are kind of geopolitical and social…all kinds of stuff you’ve heard before…why do we have to say and amplify those things in the world? …Why do we have to judge people in the world? Regulations and speed of AI development Reinforcement learning/human feedback provided every day. That’s my job. Parents provide reinforcement human feedback all the time. We just figured how to do that at a systematic level to AI. A whole bunch of technology guard rail: ex. How to generate tokens that obey the law of physics…Guard raling requires technology…Border of cybersecurity and AI is becoming blurry and blurry. We need technology to advance cybersecurity in order to protect us from AI We need technology to go faster, a lot faster. Two types of regulations: social reg., and regulations for tech products and services like bar exams and doctors, pharmacists….I ‘d love to enhance regulations in the context of AI, but I don’t know how to deal with the social implications.... Advice: "Have a core belief. Gut check it every day. Pursue it with all your might. Pursue it for a very long time. Surround yourself with the people you love, and take them on that ride.That’s the story of NVIDIA.” Related Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpZ0dPsnIWw