Latest news with #AgriculturalRevolution
Daily Record
23-07-2025
- Daily Record
The Scottish garden with beach that was named 'best seaside garden' in the country
Just a short walk from the attraction is a stunning bay. Scotland is home to countless idyllic and colourful gardens. If you are looking for a day out in picturesque surroundings, you can't go wrong with any of them. However, for something that extra bit special, the country also features many gardens nestled along the coast. A seaside garden is perfect for those looking to enjoy some spectacular coastal scenery. As reported by the Daily Record, the best seaside gardens in Scotland were recently named by Discover Scottish Gardens. Among the gardens that were singled out by the experts is Arbigland House and Gardens in Dumfries and Galloway. Arbigland House is an 18th century mansion located just outside of the village of Kirkbean. It is surrounded by 24 acres of woodland gardens. The house was constructed in the Classical Adams-style by William Craik, who introduced the Agricultural Revolution to Scotland. Those visiting the estate's lovely gardens can book a tour of the house's incredible and historic principal rooms. According to the Arbigland House and Gardens website, a lot of the trees that line the Broad Walk from the main house are more than 200 years old. At the end of the walk, there is a picturesque viewpoint across to the Lake District fells. While the gardens are primarily made up of woodland, there are a few formal sections. These include a Sunken Garden with roses and a Pavilion that was built by Italian Prisoners of War. Elsewhere, there is a Sundial Garden. Here visitors can find a sundial that dates back to 1815 and commemorates the Battle of Waterloo. Other scenic spots in the grounds are the Well Head Garden and the Japanese Garden. The former is home to unusual plants and trees, while the Japanese Garden features a variety of acers and cherries. The gardens run all the way down from the mansion to a beach that offers panoramic views across the Solway Firth to the Cumbrian Hills. As well as being recognised by Discover Scottish Gardens, the House and Gardens won a Travellers' Choice Award in 2024. According to the travel guidance platform, it is also one of the best days out around Dumfries. Arbigland House and Gardens has also received very positive feedback from day trippers. On Google, the attraction has a rating of 4.8 out of five based on 49 reviews. One tourist posted: "Lovely peaceful gardens and walks. Staff very helpful and friendly, especially Wayne." Another wrote: "Beautiful garden and a must to visit if you are in the area. There is seating by the beach carved out of logs so it's a great place to sit and have your lunch."
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
From Plow To Prompt: What Agri Revolution Can Teach Boards Re: AI Age
From Plow to Prompt The headlines are relentless: mass layoffs, hiring freezes, and soaring anxiety in the face of AI. While the fear is real, history offers a reassuring truth: we've steered this kind of transformation before. Consider the Agricultural Revolution—a seismic shift that upended human labor, productivity, and governance. Today, as generative AI upends knowledge work, the lessons from our first great disruption offer a governance roadmap for corporate boards navigating this new frontier. History's Playbook Roughly 12,000 years ago, in what is now the Fertile Crescent, early humans transitioned from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturalists. Far from an overnight leap, this transition was incremental and uneven. Archaeological digs at Abu Hureyra (modern-day Syria) reveal that societies layered new practices onto old ones, blending traditional foraging with early planting techniques (Moore et al., 2000). Why does this matter now? Because successful adaptation required three pillars: strategy, policy, and programmatic infrastructure—the same pillars boards must now reinforce to govern through AI disruption. Govern or Fall Generative AI is not a tool. It's a platform shift, as highlighted in GenAI Urges A Shift From Digital Transformation To Business Transformation. Like agriculture, electricity, or the internet, it changes the fundamental contract between labor, value creation, and growth. Boards that delegate AI governance to the IT department or treat it as a cost-saver are repeating the errors of past disruption deniers. The stakes are higher than quarterly returns. A 2024 PwC CEO Survey called Reinvention on the Edge of Tomorrow found that 34% of CEOs expect litigation due to AI bias or misuse within three years PwC, 2024. Boards must ask: Do we have the right policies, metrics, and ethics guardrails in place? If not, governance failure is not a risk. It's a certainty. This is a reference that Boards can use to better understand how to frame questions related to GenAI and Human Capital governance: The Conference Board – Generative AI: Questions the CHRO Should Ask. Strategy Remade The shift from hunting to farming required new strategic assumptions: predictable yields, land use, food surplus. Similarly, AI demands a rethink of what value creation means. According to McKinsey, generative AI could add $2.6 to $4.4 trillion in annual economic value—but only if companies reconfigure workflows and upskill labor accordingly McKinsey, 2023. Boards must demand that AI strategy aligns with core value drivers. Are investments being made in R&D, AI governance, and human capital analytics, or is AI framed merely as a headcount-reduction tool? Firms that link AI to business model innovation—not just automation—are those that will compound returns. Policy Infrastructure The Code of Hammurabi, written around 1750 BCE, introduced laws to manage the complexity of agrarian society: contracts, labor terms, ownership rules. Today's boards must do the same for AI. Key policies require immediate oversight: These are not operational details—they are boardroom imperatives. Boards must ensure these policies are codified, aligned with risk appetite, and monitored through robust reporting channels. Frameworks like ISO 42001 for AI management systems and ISO 30414 for human capital reporting offer valuable scaffolding. Programs for People + AI Just as ancient societies created apprenticeships, seasonal calendars, and knowledge transfer methods for farming, today's organizations must develop AI literacy programs that protect and extend human capability. Start with job architecture. Roles must evolve to include prompt engineering, model evaluation, and ethical oversight. Then, build scalable programs for: High-performing companies already lead here. For example, AT&T/Udacity's nano-degree program reduced reskilling time by 35% and increased internal mobility. In AI Is Reshaping Work Faster that Companies Can Upskill, Rashidi emphasizes that while technology is accelerating, the gap in workforce readiness is widening, making structured, scalable learning programs a model for future-fit talent development. Disclosure as Governance Boards can no longer rely on lagging indicators. Investors, regulators, and employees want forward-looking metrics that link AI integration to strategy and human capital performance. Use ISO 30414's human capital metrics (e.g., productivity, engagement, internal mobility) alongside ESRS S1 and S2 standards to create transparent, audit-ready disclosures. Track workforce adaptation rates, not just AI adoption rates. If you're cutting talent faster than upskilling it, expect governance questions at your next annual meeting. Boards, CEOs, CFOs and HCROs need to reframe how human capital is viewed as part of the business model. It is not simply an expense, but is an investment in an intangible asset, according to the SEC, that drives economic value-creation. Once this context shift has occurred, investments in human capital can be evaluated the same way as capital investments. The Human Constant Technological revolutions do not erase the need for human judgment. In ancient Mesopotamia, irrigation required engineers, not just water. Today, AI requires ethical stewards, not just algorithms. Boards that lead this transition with strategic foresight, policy rigor, and talent investment will not only mitigate risk—they'll accelerate competitive advantage. Because it's not the strongest that survive disruptions. It's those who govern the shift This article builds on ideas originally developed in collaboration with Stela Lupushor. I'm grateful for her partnership and insight in shaping our shared perspective on the history of work, technology, and human capital.
Economic Times
28-06-2025
- General
- Economic Times
Muskets, markets and models: Why AI is the new engine of revolution
It began with a 'boundary', unlike with a bang for the Universe. Thousands of years ago, on the banks of the Tigris River, a small group of people did something no human had done before. ADVERTISEMENT It was crude—woven reeds and branches—but it enclosed something: wheat, barley, and goats. It marked, perhaps for the first time, something that was 'owned', and not 'shared'. The agricultural revolution had begun. Until then, homo sapiens moved with the seasons, living in bands. Agriculture brought stability, and with it, abundance. But it also brought division—those who owned land, and those who worked it. The fence didn't just mark a field. It marked the beginning of power. But with ownership came exclusion, and with exclusion came conflict. Once resources could be stored, they could be taken. Raids replaced wandering. Walls replaced kinship. Scarcity was no longer about nature—it was about who held the surplus. The first fortified settlements weren't for wild beasts, but rival clans. Agriculture didn't just change how we lived—it changed why we fought. ADVERTISEMENT If the Agricultural Revolution marked the beginning of ownership, the next great revolutions were about who gets to decide, who gets to rule, and who gets to benefit from growth—enter the Dutch, British and French revolutions. The Dutch Revolution (1568 to 1648) emerged from a prosperous, mercantile society's growing desire for religious freedom and self-rule. The Netherlands had fuelled the Spanish Empire for decades—wealthy, literate, and commercially sophisticated. But when the Spanish crown sought to tighten control through religious conformity and heavy taxation, resistance grew. What began as political unrest escalated into a brutal, drawn-out conflict—the Eighty Years' War—marked by city-wide sieges, economic collapse, famine, and devastation. Yet amid this chaos, something transformative took root. With the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, the Dutch finally secured independence. In its aftermath, the world witnessed the birth of the first modern republic, the first stock exchange, and a striking new paradigm: that commerce—not aristocracy—could shape the destiny of a nation. ADVERTISEMENT The Industrial Revolution (c1760 to 1840) was ignited by a potent convergence of coal, capital, and invention that fundamentally redefined how humans worked and produced. It took root in Britain's damp textile towns and soot-stained mills, where steam engines, spinning jennies, and ironworks accelerated productivity and reshaped entire industries. Cities swelled with labour, but beneath the promise of progress lay deep human cost. Workers endured punishing fourteen-hour shifts; children were forced into hazardous labour under humming looms. As mechanization displaced skilled artisans, the Luddites rose in fury, smashing the very machines that threatened their way of life. Overcrowded slums bred illness and unrest, and economic stratification hardened into structural class conflict. While the revolution ushered in modern economies and birthed the middle class, it also introduced systemic inequality and sparked radical ideologies like Marxism. Power shifted to those who could master machines, and though the age brought progress, it did not bring peace. The French Revolution, which erupted in 1789, was the culmination of centuries of royal extravagance, mounting economic crisis, and the simmering force of Enlightenment ideals. The monarchy, deeply in debt and indifferent to public hardship, presided over a population that could scarcely afford bread. As grain prices soared and inequality became unbearable, the masses rose in revolt. What began with outrage in pamphlets soon spilled violently into the streets. Paris bled as the Bastille fell, the monarchy crumbled, and the guillotine cast its long shadow over king and citizen alike. Robespierre's Reign of Terror followed, only to be succeeded by the rise of Napoleon, who crowned himself emperor in a republic still searching for stability. Though the revolution ended absolute monarchy and seeded democratic ideals across Europe, it also proved that noble intentions do not shield societies from chaos, especially when power lies unclaimed. ADVERTISEMENT These revolutions may have differed in cause and character, but they followed a remarkably consistent arc. Each began with a group poised to gain rising against those with something to lose. Violence was not incidental but instrumental—a mechanism of transition rather than chaos. Old institutions—empires, monarchies, artisan guilds—collapsed, and in their place emerged new systems of governance, production, and power. They were not always clean or successful, but they reshaped how societies functioned, how economies operated, and how individuals understood their roles. Though past revolutions were chaotic and violent, they were visible—marked by slogans, battles, and treaties. Today's revolution is quieter, but no less transformative. ADVERTISEMENT It runs on servers and learns with every click. Not led by muskets, but by models, this revolution may change what it means to be human. Intelligence, once purely biological, now evolves in machines. As Max Bennett notes in A Brief History of Intelligence , traits like memory, imagination, and reasoning took nature millions of years to develop. AI has been gaining them for decades. We're no longer programming tools—we're training minds. AI threatens to upend every existing hierarchy, not just by replacing roles, but by redrawing the very structure of power. A new class division is emerging—between those who own the algorithms and those who are shaped by them. Platforms become landlords of digital capital; users, the new labour. Influence over elections, markets, and warfare will lie with those who command data and compute. As land defined power in the agrarian age, and capital in the industrial one, intelligence—artificially concentrated—is becoming the new fault line between the empowered and the is inevitable. Jobs will vanish. Nations will clash over technological dominance. Truth itself will blur under deepfakes and disinformation. Education no longer assures an edge. Labour loses primacy. Identity is malleable. Markets react not just to fundamentals, but to synthetic narratives. Most critically, AI is recursive. It learns how to improve itself. It accelerates as the fence marked the beginning of power, the neural net may mark the end of humanity's monopoly over it. We are no longer the sole authors of change. But revolutions don't just rewrite code or law—they reprice belief. And nowhere is belief more foundational than in financial over half a century, the U.S. dollar has been more than a currency—it has been a consensus. Not backed by gold, but by trust: in American institutions, its central bank, and its role as the global stabiliser. The world bought dollars not for yield, but for belief sustained a remarkable imbalance—the dollar's dominance in global finance far outstripping America's share of global output. But belief is brittle. Political brinkmanship, debt ceiling theatrics, and the return of inflation have chipped away at that trust. And as confidence falters, so too does the foundation beneath every dollar-denominated asset—from oil and equities to the scaffolding of global financial stability. In such a world, the old rules of investing—buy good companies, hold for the long term—begin to break. Fundamentals no longer move markets on their own. Instead, flows, liquidity cycles, and sentiment dominate. Valuation models struggle to keep pace with regime shifts. Macro narratives overpower micro truths. Greed and fear displace patience and discipline. Cycles—across stocks, sectors, and market caps—are taking over. And they're getting shorter. What once unfolded over years now collapses into months, driven by the speed and scale of modern capital. The rise of retail participation—turbocharged by social media, zero-cost trading, and an always-on information stream—has added momentum to this churn. In this fractured environment, investing has become less about conviction and more about context. Less about holding through cycles, and more about surviving their whiplash. The half-life of belief is collapsing, and with it, the foundations of traditional investing. We used to price value. Today, we price belief—and belief, increasingly, is built on noise. History does not move in straight lines—it turns on ruptures. From the first fence to the first factory to the first algorithm that wrote a sentence, every revolution has redrawn the contours of power, belief, and conflict. What began with land shifted to machines, then to ideas, and now to intelligence itself. As markets mirror this upheaval—not just reacting to capital, but to chaos—the task for asset allocators is no longer about riding a single trend or trusting a single heuristic. It is about staying anchored in a world of shifting tides. Navigating revolutions, yes—but more urgently, navigating cycles. Because in an age where conviction is fleeting and regimes turn fast, it is the ability to adapt to cycles—across styles, sectors, and sentiment — that will define the path to consistent, risk-adjusted returns.
Time of India
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Muskets, markets and models: Why AI is the new engine of revolution
They built a fence. Live Events The Intelligence Revolution And intelligence is power. (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel It began with a 'boundary', unlike with a bang for the Universe . Thousands of years ago, on the banks of the Tigris River, a small group of people did something no human had done was crude—woven reeds and branches—but it enclosed something: wheat, barley, and goats. It marked, perhaps for the first time, something that was 'owned', and not 'shared'.The agricultural revolution had begun. Until then, homo sapiens moved with the seasons, living in bands. Agriculture brought stability, and with it, abundance. But it also brought division—those who owned land, and those who worked fence didn't just mark a field. It marked the beginning of with ownership came exclusion, and with exclusion came conflict. Once resources could be stored, they could be taken. Raids replaced wandering. Walls replaced kinship. Scarcity was no longer about nature—it was about who held the surplus. The first fortified settlements weren't for wild beasts, but rival clans. Agriculture didn't just change how we lived—it changed why we the Agricultural Revolution marked the beginning of ownership, the next great revolutions were about who gets to decide, who gets to rule, and who gets to benefit from growth—enter the Dutch, British and French Dutch Revolution (1568 to 1648) emerged from a prosperous, mercantile society's growing desire for religious freedom and self-rule. The Netherlands had fuelled the Spanish Empire for decades—wealthy, literate, and commercially sophisticated. But when the Spanish crown sought to tighten control through religious conformity and heavy taxation, resistance grew. What began as political unrest escalated into a brutal, drawn-out conflict—the Eighty Years' War—marked by city-wide sieges, economic collapse, famine, and devastation. Yet amid this chaos, something transformative took root. With the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, the Dutch finally secured independence. In its aftermath, the world witnessed the birth of the first modern republic, the first stock exchange, and a striking new paradigm: that commerce—not aristocracy—could shape the destiny of a Industrial Revolution (c1760 to 1840) was ignited by a potent convergence of coal, capital, and invention that fundamentally redefined how humans worked and produced. It took root in Britain's damp textile towns and soot-stained mills, where steam engines, spinning jennies, and ironworks accelerated productivity and reshaped entire industries. Cities swelled with labour, but beneath the promise of progress lay deep human cost. Workers endured punishing fourteen-hour shifts; children were forced into hazardous labour under humming looms. As mechanization displaced skilled artisans, the Luddites rose in fury, smashing the very machines that threatened their way of life. Overcrowded slums bred illness and unrest, and economic stratification hardened into structural class conflict. While the revolution ushered in modern economies and birthed the middle class, it also introduced systemic inequality and sparked radical ideologies like Marxism. Power shifted to those who could master machines, and though the age brought progress, it did not bring French Revolution, which erupted in 1789, was the culmination of centuries of royal extravagance, mounting economic crisis, and the simmering force of Enlightenment ideals. The monarchy, deeply in debt and indifferent to public hardship, presided over a population that could scarcely afford bread. As grain prices soared and inequality became unbearable, the masses rose in revolt. What began with outrage in pamphlets soon spilled violently into the streets. Paris bled as the Bastille fell, the monarchy crumbled, and the guillotine cast its long shadow over king and citizen alike. Robespierre's Reign of Terror followed, only to be succeeded by the rise of Napoleon , who crowned himself emperor in a republic still searching for stability. Though the revolution ended absolute monarchy and seeded democratic ideals across Europe, it also proved that noble intentions do not shield societies from chaos, especially when power lies revolutions may have differed in cause and character, but they followed a remarkably consistent arc. Each began with a group poised to gain rising against those with something to lose. Violence was not incidental but instrumental—a mechanism of transition rather than chaos. Old institutions—empires, monarchies, artisan guilds—collapsed, and in their place emerged new systems of governance, production, and power. They were not always clean or successful, but they reshaped how societies functioned, how economies operated, and how individuals understood their past revolutions were chaotic and violent, they were visible—marked by slogans, battles, and treaties. Today's revolution is quieter, but no less runs on servers and learns with every click. Not led by muskets , but by models, this revolution may change what it means to be human. Intelligence, once purely biological, now evolves in machines. As Max Bennett notes in A Brief History of Intelligence, traits like memory, imagination, and reasoning took nature millions of years to develop. AI has been gaining them for decades. We're no longer programming tools—we're training threatens to upend every existing hierarchy, not just by replacing roles, but by redrawing the very structure of power. A new class division is emerging—between those who own the algorithms and those who are shaped by them. Platforms become landlords of digital capital; users, the new labour. Influence over elections, markets , and warfare will lie with those who command data and compute. As land defined power in the agrarian age, and capital in the industrial one, intelligence—artificially concentrated—is becoming the new fault line between the empowered and the is inevitable. Jobs will vanish. Nations will clash over technological dominance. Truth itself will blur under deepfakes and disinformation. Education no longer assures an edge. Labour loses primacy. Identity is malleable. Markets react not just to fundamentals, but to synthetic narratives. Most critically, AI is recursive. It learns how to improve itself. It accelerates as the fence marked the beginning of power, the neural net may mark the end of humanity's monopoly over it. We are no longer the sole authors of change. But revolutions don't just rewrite code or law—they reprice belief. And nowhere is belief more foundational than in financial over half a century, the U.S. dollar has been more than a currency—it has been a consensus. Not backed by gold, but by trust: in American institutions, its central bank, and its role as the global stabiliser. The world bought dollars not for yield, but for belief sustained a remarkable imbalance—the dollar's dominance in global finance far outstripping America's share of global output. But belief is brittle. Political brinkmanship, debt ceiling theatrics, and the return of inflation have chipped away at that trust. And as confidence falters, so too does the foundation beneath every dollar-denominated asset—from oil and equities to the scaffolding of global financial such a world, the old rules of investing—buy good companies, hold for the long term—begin to break. Fundamentals no longer move markets on their own. Instead, flows, liquidity cycles, and sentiment dominate. Valuation models struggle to keep pace with regime shifts. Macro narratives overpower micro truths. Greed and fear displace patience and stocks, sectors, and market caps—are taking over. And they're getting shorter. What once unfolded over years now collapses into months, driven by the speed and scale of modern capital. The rise of retail participation—turbocharged by social media, zero-cost trading, and an always-on information stream—has added momentum to this this fractured environment, investing has become less about conviction and more about context. Less about holding through cycles, and more about surviving their whiplash. The half-life of belief is collapsing, and with it, the foundations of traditional investing. We used to price value. Today, we price belief—and belief, increasingly, is built on does not move in straight lines—it turns on ruptures. From the first fence to the first factory to the first algorithm that wrote a sentence, every revolution has redrawn the contours of power, belief, and conflict. What began with land shifted to machines, then to ideas, and now to intelligence itself. As markets mirror this upheaval—not just reacting to capital, but to chaos—the task for asset allocators is no longer about riding a single trend or trusting a single heuristic. It is about staying anchored in a world of shifting tides. Navigating revolutions, yes—but more urgently, navigating cycles. Because in an age where conviction is fleeting and regimes turn fast, it is the ability to adapt to cycles—across styles, sectors, and sentiment — that will define the path to consistent, risk-adjusted returns.
Daily Express
28-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Express
Stepping up Sabah's chicken output
Published on: Saturday, June 28, 2025 Published on: Sat, Jun 28, 2025 By: Garry Lewis Text Size: Jeffrey (second, left) in a group photo at the event. TAMBUNAN: Broiler chicken farming has been elevated as a key pillar of Sabah's Agricultural Revolution, in line with efforts to ensure food security and boost rural incomes. Deputy Chief Minister cum State Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said this initiative represents one of the State Government's primary strategies to make Sabah Malaysia's largest broiler producer. 'The government, through my ministry, is currently implementing the Agricultural Revolution initiative to strengthen the rural economy. One of our main focuses is increasing broiler production,' Jeffrey said after launching the Broiler Farming Course attended by some 200 participants from rural areas. The programme was organised by a private farming company in collaboration with the Sabah Veterinary Services Department here. Jeffrey said the course, conducted with cooperation from the Department of Veterinary Services and private sector partners, aims to provide systematic training to participants to make chicken production more organised and productive, including technical assistance for coop preparation and chick supply. He encouraged youths and agricultural entrepreneurs to participate in this sector to ensure broiler farming can be developed intensively on a commercial scale. 'With continued support from relevant agencies, I am confident that broiler farming can become the main driver of Sabah's food security and contribute to the state's rural economic development,' he said. At the same ceremony, Jeffrey presented RM10,000 in financial assistance to the Tambunan District School Sports Council, which will host the State-level School Sports Council Championship on June 29. The State Government remains committed to strengthening the agricultural sector through various assistance programmes and training initiatives, aiming for Sabah to achieve its target of becoming the nation's primary broiler production hub in the future. * Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel and Telegram for breaking news alerts and key updates! * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express's Telegram channel. Daily Express Malaysia
